Release your anger!

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Feb 18, 2010 at 17:32


Update--The comments have all been submitted to the FDIC.  Thank you to everyone who commented!

If you are still looking to comment, and it is still Friday the 19th where you live, you can submit comments directly to the FDIC here.

****

In 2008, the world economy crashed because of excessive risk-taking behavior by banks and other large financial institutions. This wasn't an accident.  Even now, at many of those institutions, the more risks the executives take, the more they are paid.

To stop this behavior, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), is proposing a new regulation that will financially penalize banks that reward executives for taking excessive risks. Before they pass this regulation, they want to hear from the public.

We need to get new regulations like this passed.  So, please, tell the FDIC what you think of this new regulation.  Post a comment to this thread, and we will submit it to the FDIC for you before Friday's deadline.  

We checked with the FDIC, and confirmed they would accept comments in this form.  If you don't have an account, just sign up and make one.  It is quick and easy.

The banking industry is still doling out huge bonuses for excessive risk, and has spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying against regulations such as these.  We can never outspend them, or even equal them.  The only weapon we have against them is our populist anger.

So, follow the advice of the Emperor in Star Wars, and release your anger. Post a comment to this article, and tell the FDIC what you think of banks rewarding executives who take excessive risks that lead to economic catastrophe.

Off-topic comments will be deleted.  Also, don't make any threats or incitements to violence.  Still, when voters aren't angry, politicians don't respond.  So, don't be gentle.

Please post a comment, and may the force be with you!

Update: In the comments, lutton raises an important question:

Don't most of these public comments require real name/ID/address to prevent astroturfing?

I'll be glad to post a comment here either way, but are there alternatives avenues those of us with pseudonymous IDs should consider?

Now, I was told it would be fine.  However, if, just to be sure, you would like to provide your name and location, that is good, too.

Chris Bowers :: Release your anger!

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Release your anger! | 124 comments
Make White Collar Fraud a real crime (4.00 / 3)
Stop the robbery of the public commons and the rewarding of robber barons.  Do not allow those that play havoc with the economy to go rewarded to their rose garden.
Yes, indeed (4.00 / 2)
It really seems imperative to rein the gamblers in. They have done enormous damage not only to our domestic economy, but to the whole world.

Do they need to join Gamblers Anonymous?

one question about IDs (4.00 / 2)
Don't most of these public comments require real name/ID/address to prevent astroturfing?

I'll be glad to post a comment here either way, but are there alternatives avenues those of us with pseudonymous IDs should consider?

I was told it was fine. (0.00 / 0)
I ws told it was fine.

However, if you feel more comfortable providing your name and location, that works too.

Will update the post to say this.

[ Parent ]
i can't think of a more important regulation (4.00 / 5)
Having worked on Wall Street, I've seen how cavalierly and stupidly bankers are prone to act when it's other people's money. We need more rules to keep them in line.
backstop and withhold until risk satisfied (4.00 / 3)
I believe that the financial industry needs to have risk-intense investing strategies backstopped by tangible assets--not credit default swaps or other "insurance."  I also believe that compensation, commissions and bonuses derived from risk-intense investing strategies should only be payable once the risk has been mitigated by the successful and profitable conclusion of the investment strategy.  Some compensation payment could be allowable during the lifetime of the investment, provided the compensation was based on an inverse-relation to the remaining risk.

I also believe that transaction fees on high volume trading strategies should be used to limit the use of such strategies.

Release your anger!! (0.00 / 0)
Lets stop the insanity! (pardon the Susan Boyle reference, but dang it she was right!!).  
Release you anger!! (0.00 / 0)
whoops I mean Susan Powter! but I'm sure Susan Boyle would agree.  Ok I'm not sure but..  oh forget it..
There is no question (4.00 / 1)
that we need to stop rewarding bankers with these excessive bonuses/pay/stock/perks.  Banking should be boring.  They should be making loans to qualified people and businesses and NEVER taking risks.

--

Seeing The Forest -- Who is our economy FOR, anyway? Twitter: dcjohnson
not only do they need to rein in compensation (4.00 / 6)
but it needs to be done in a way that prevents back-door wage increases. Financial engineering is just another way of saying let's make money out of nothing and by the time the public finds out it's too late -- they're screwed and we're already loaded.  
They should be in jail -- cutting their earnings should be the minimum we do (4.00 / 10)
The financial "industry" has grown immensely in the past 10 years. But most of this growth appears to be largely a Ponzi scheme of brokers betting on some underlying instrument whose fundamental value may be deliberately obscured, often hidden by bond rating agencies colluding in the deception. This is why the financial system almost collapsed in September 2008 -- there was not enough real value to cover all the stupid bets when sub-prime mortgages began to go bad.

The incentives in the financial industry are all wrong. An individual broker makes vast amounts of money by winning in short-term trades, sometimes by buying and selling all within a few seconds. They also have strong incentive to hide bad investments, entice gullible people into buying junk, and generally to engage in fraudulent behavior. When all this bad behavior leads to a collapse of the system, it costs these brokers nothing. If they are smart, they have tucked their own personal earnings away by purchasing something tangible or at least socked it away in relatively safe investments like Treasury bonds.

The high incentives for brokers to play this game -- good for the individual broker but terrible for the overall economy -- also lead these brokers to pump lots of money into lobbying Congress to keep the rules intact. This lobbying contributes nothing to good governance and should be illegal (and those who engage in it should be in jail).

Given that what these brokers do provides nothing of value to society and is, in fact, quite destructive, they should be earning at most the minimum wage for their efforts. Instead, they are earning millions or even tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. This is incredibly bizarre and totally outrageous.

The proposed FDIC regulation is one small step towards curbing this terrible behavior and bringing earnings back to some semblance of a sane level. Banks that reward their brokers for terrible behavior certainly should be penalized so that their bad behavior does not cost us all. And conservative banks that operate on society's behalf should be rewarded. So I fully support the idea of linking required bank deposits to good behavior and to low earnings formulas for executives and brokers.

But we need so much more: a transactions tax on every trade to reduce the amount of speculative trading (that contributes nothing to society and makes the economy very vulnerable to small perturbations), a higher rate of taxation on high incomes to capture some of the ill-gotten gains, and a wealth tax to recover some of the ill-gotten gains garnered in the past few years.

And many of the brokers who engaged in this behavior should really be in jail for fraud and corruption. The fact that this is not on the agenda just shows how corrupt and fraudulent the entire financial and political systems have become. If we want a banking system that people can trust (and in which they will entrust their hard-earned money), then this massive corruption and fraud must be curbed. This all should have been done at least a year ago -- I'm extremely frustrated that it has taken this long to even begin to consider these measures.

Enact strong measures now! Ignore the lobbying and wailing from the industry -- these are the exact same people who almost destroyed the economy and who have definitely impoverished tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, their homes, and their savings. These people should be in jail, not earning outrageous salaries and bonuses for their nefarious deeds. They should be in jail, not whining about regulations to stop their bad behavior.

I strongly agree (0.00 / 0)
with this entire comment. We can't go on rewarding these crooks with billions for destroying the economy. It simply incentivizes further destruction. This rule is a small step, but better than nothing. It needs to be passed immediately (better late than never.)

miasmo.com
[ Parent ]
FDIC (4.00 / 3)
Stop rewarding bankers that take bad risks with our money.  
Agree (0.00 / 0)
I am totally in favor of these proposed changes.

I blog on InnermostParts.org
[ Parent ]
Anything that can be done (4.00 / 2)
to make banks responsive to the risks they are taking that have been demonstrated conclusively to seriously affect the citizens of this country and its economy is a step in the right direction.

I would encourage even more stringent regulation and taxation.

FDIC and Excessive Risk on Wall Street (4.00 / 2)
I know for me, if this is not changed by law, I will be pulling all of my money out of Wall Street AGAIN! I pulled it before the recession and put my money back in after recovery began.

Excessive risk when you are NOT the stakeholder is crazy to allow. And even crazier to allow this risky behavior to be rewarded by bonus.

I will not be a part of it much longer. I will make my money safe even if it prevents growth.  

Risk Taking (4.00 / 2)
Heavy fines should be in order for banks who take risks with other peoples money.  If they're too big to fail, they're too big and need to diversify.  No bonuses!
true (0.00 / 0)
I'd rather see them fold than be given money that isn't theirs and that they don't deserve.

Extraordinary progressive star in the making
[ Parent ]
Gambling is Meant for Vegas Not Wall Street (4.00 / 2)

We all know that the banks have a backstop courtesy of the US taxpayer.

We simply cannot afford to perpetually bail out banks for risky behavior.

FDIC - look out for the American people and what is in the interest of the public good - not the narrow interests of some select wall street bankers.

--
I have no comment sig

stop the redistribution of wealth to the wealthiest (4.00 / 2)
Subsidizing this risky behavior is the equivalent of letting bankers steal from the rest of us.  We cover the costs of their irresponsibility and they walk away with huge compensation, leaving us holding the bag.  They are nothing more than robbers and should not be allowed to do this unpunished.  It is time to put an end to it!
Tsunami Alert (4.00 / 2)
We have had it with all the fraud, tax shelters,insane investment strategies, over-payment of executives, and now the new "corporation is a person" ruling. The middle and lower classes will not keep their blinders on forever. When they realize what has been allowed to happen to this country's economy, a day of reckoning will hit you enablers like a tsunami.
As a Canadian (4.00 / 1)
My willingness to invest in America, via owning American stocks or mutual funds easily available in my bank's online trading account is significantly dampened by my sense of the wild west mentality in play on Wall Street.

I could do my due diligence to find a good company or well performing fund, but why bother when the whole game is rigged against me?  Further, any gains I might realize can be wiped out because these fools crash the markets or purposely drive down a stock they want to short.

Until America signals that the children do not run the playground with some meaningful limits on the major players, I will remain unwilling to put any money at risk there.  

I am no expert on these matters, and the proposed regulation may work or not work well, but enacting it would be a signal in the right direction that things are changing and the Sheriff has returned to town.

The need for regulation (4.00 / 3)
The Great Depression was caused by unregulated speculation, and the solution that gave America fiscal stability until the 1980s was part of the New Deal - we know what causes the economic chaos we're seeing now, and we know what prevents it. We the people should be regulating the financial industry via our elected leaders and the agencies that exist to provide that regulation.
About time to regulate these guys (4.00 / 1)
They did not learn their lesson after last year and the apparently the only way to control these people is by closely regulating them and penalizing them for taking excessive risks. I say do it sooner than later! What a bunch of cretins!
White Collar Crimes Hurt the US People (4.00 / 2)
White Collar crimes are crimes which hurt the average US citizen. It is high time the banks are more regulated. Do not allow them to play with our money.
Financial Regulation (4.00 / 3)
I strongly support a new regulation that will financially penalize banks that pay executives to take excessive risks!
Financial Regulation (0.00 / 0)
I strongly support a new regulation that will financially penalize banks that pay executives to take excessive risks!
Too big to fail is too big to exist (4.00 / 2)
Any financial institution that is taking risks with taxpayer backed money should be regulated. Our current system allows them to be rewarded with private profit while gambling with public funds. Break up the big banks, and regulate the entire industry.  
FDIC Action Long Overdue (4.00 / 3)
How is it possible that the FDIC has gotten away with this blindness for so long?  You are supposed to be regulating the financial industry, making sure that our assets are safe.  Instead you allow corporations to pick our pockets and gamble with our hard-earned money.  We need stricter regulation now.
Out Of Control (4.00 / 4)
If I told my 5 year old daughter I'd give her a cookie if she jumped off the front step of our house, but I'd give her a lifetime supply of cookies if she would jump off the roof, not only would I be completely insane, but I'd go to jail!  So my question is, why does the FDIC need a comment period to figure this out?  Isn't the banking industry by nature a conservative industry?  And if that is the case, why is there ANY hesitation about limiting the ability of the banking industry to take risks w/our money?  Anyone who engages in this activity under the notion that they'll get "a lifetime supply of cookies" should, by all rights, be in jail.  

So let's not debate whether there should be financial penalties imposed upon those who take risks with our hard-earned money.  Instead, let's debate the length of their prison sentences.  Furthermore, let's make this policy retroactive to the beginning of the 21st Century.  

I'll gladly volunteer to begin the sentencing of those who imploded our economy a few years back, all the while gleefully rubbing their palms together at the notion they could not only get away w/this, but then receive $800 billion MORE of our hard-earned money in government-rewarded bailouts!  Stop the insanity, and begin the sentencing now - and I'm NOT advocating "country club prisons", but rather those small enclosed spaces w/four damp walls and a meager view (through sturdy iron bars) of the world they chose to leave behind due to their unimaginable greed.  Thanks for listening, FDIC.

Patrick Lewis

Capitalism is Cracked (4.00 / 3)
Capitalism is cracking and the proof is continued tobacco sales and the financial meltdown of the housing, stock, and credit markets. When the people who caused these disasters are the same ones who walk away with millions of dollars, you can be sure that if the crack is not patched, it will only grow larger.

When you realize that nothing in the real world is 100% good or 100% bad, then you can understand that "Reality is Between the Dualities".
They should be in jail (4.00 / 4)
These guys got rich for bankrupting millions of Americans. They should be in jail, but instead they continue to give themselves billions of dollars in bonuses. Their behavior will not change without new regulations.  
Banks will do what is allowed... (4.00 / 3)
and if the law allows them to continue being irreponsible with other people's money, they will. The only way they will behave decently is if they are forced to do so, i.e. there are harsh penalties waiting for them when they screw over the entire country (and world) again. Regulate, regulate, regulate.
[ Parent ]
Consumers Need Protetction (4.00 / 4)
It is high time financial institutions were held accountable for their actions.  I fully support the new regulation to penalize those institutions that gamble with depositors' money.  Please remember the FDIC is in existence to protect DEPOSITORS' money, not CEO profits.
New FDIC regulations (4.00 / 2)
These banksters should be imprisoned and all their assets confiscated for their abusive risks that have nearly bankrupted this country, and HAVE bankrupted a large percentage of the citizens of this country.

I used to do some minor trading in currency and I am well aware of how much our US Dollar has been devalued by their shenanigans. We needs regulations in place that will keep this from ever happening again!

Dear FDIC: Don't hurt yourselves acting too fast on this. (4.00 / 4)
It's not like reform is urgently needed or anything.  I'm sure the economy can take a few more little hiccups like the last one before we see any real damage.    

The FDIC is seeking public comment on the plan for 30 days. If there is a final rule, it isn't expected to be adopted until late in the year.
 

No rush guys.  Take your time.  I'm sure these executives will restrain themselves from "excessive" risk-taking for the next 8 or 10 months while you continue to study the issue, as you apparently have not been doing during the last couple of years.  

New Regulation of the Financial Markets (4.00 / 2)
Smart, ethical financial economists from the late Hyman Minsky to Joe Stiglitz and Nouriel Roubini (and legal experts like Elizabeth Warren) have been arguing for decades against the reckless deregulation of American financial markets--and for greater consumer protection in these markets. But until 2007-8, they were voices in the wilderness, while the neoliberal consensus reigned supreme under Alan Greenspan and latterly his epigone Ben Bernanke.

It is now apparent to everyone--even mainstream economists--that Friedmanite neoliberal economics (like its cousin, supply-side economics) was a huckster's snake-oil recipe compounded of equal parts myopia, arrogance, and greed. It has catastrophically failed--as even the wretched old hack Greenspan and his erstwhile intellectual backer, Richard Posner, have both been forced to concede. In the process it has beggared tens of millions of Americans, who have lost their jobs, their homes, and in many cases their hope. Meanwhile the men who caused all this misery are pocketing annual bonuses larger than 90% of Americans will earn in their entire lives, and, like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, patting themselves on the head for "doing God's work." If that's God's work, I'd hate to see Satan's.

The crazy speculation in MBS's and other derivative instruments that drove the bubble of the later Bush years was a direct consequence of regulatory decisions made under Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II; the disaster is bipartisan in origin, and there's plenty of blame to go round. A few giga-banks have famously been allowed to grow "too big to fail," while executives and traders are rewarded for wild risk-taking--with our money!--but not penalized when they make stupid mistakes or unethical choices. As many others have noted, this incentive structure is an absolute blueprint for disaster. The proposed regulation is a useful first step in preventing such an obscenity from occurring again. We also need:
* anti-trust action to break up the TBTF giga-banks like Goldman and AIG;
* reimposition of a modernized version of Glass-Steagall; *
regulations that tie the banks closely to the divisions or spinoffs that engage in high-risk activity so that they can't escape the consequences of bad decision-making;
* an open and accountable Federal Reserve that is not a revolving door for giga-bankers; and
* a Consumer Financial Protection Agency as proposed by Prof. Warren.

Bottom line: THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. FAILING TO TAKE STRONG CORRECTIVE ACTION IS INEXCUSABLE.

Protect our future from the players (4.00 / 1)
We need more and better regulation to discourage large banks and traders from taking risks with our money. Your proposal is a step in the right direction.  
Penalize the Bank Executives! (4.00 / 2)
Yep, it's more than past due that the FDIC financially penalize the banks who pay executives to take risks - any risks, period. How about the executives PAY the public for banking at their financial institution. After the banking industry fiasco, I refuse to do business with any bank...
I'll stick with my local Credit Union and the banks can close for all I care.
Capitalism is supposed to reward people (4.00 / 4)
for taking risks with their own property - not for doing so with other people's money.  It's certainly not supposed to bring great rewards for people who seek to profit from risk to society as a whole.  Nor is it supposed to reward people for colossal failure.  

Incentives matter - leaving these incentives in place only encourages banks to repeat the behaviors that led to the current economic crisis again.  

Government is supposed to act in the interests of "We the People."  The FDIC has a duty to protect the people from this sort of pathological behavior.  It's time to act.

Politics is the art of the possible, but that means you have to think about changing what is possible, not that you have to accept it in perpetuity.

Speculation Must Stop (4.00 / 3)
The current set-up for bankers of heads bankers win, tails taxpayers pay is obscenely unfair and must be stopped.
Do it now! (4.00 / 1)
This has gone on long enough!
Financial Regulations (4.00 / 3)
ABSOLUTELY...
Living in nevada, we have our share of gambling, but the only one who gets hurt is the gambler. our financial institutions need to be controlled the same way that gaming industry is held on a tight leash. a resurection of the glass-stegall act would be a great start.
how much money are we talking here? (4.00 / 3)
these people destroyed lives all over the world. they shouldn't be "financially penalized", they should be in prison. but in this case i guess i'll have to take what i can get.  
financial regulations (0.00 / 0)
the banking industry must stop this reprehensible behavior - period. now!
The FDIC is an insurance agency (4.00 / 3)
The banks are purchasing insurance.  Insurance rates are based on the level of risk of the insured.  Banks want to pursue risky behavior (in which they reward employees with substantial bonuses) they should be prepared to pay elevated premiums for their insurance.  Simple business sense.

Of course, the FDIC could always assume the model of private insurance vendors and simply expel excessive risk client banks from the system.  This would decrease the overall pool of risk while increasing finacial fecundity of both the FDIC and its remaining client banks (through overall lower premiums to all customers).  But this would never be tolerated, of course, because banks and other massive corporations hate the idea of a "managed" free market system (unless they are the one's managing it).

Stop the Robber Barons! (0.00 / 0)
Let's replace an economy fueled by greed with a more balanced approach.
FDIC (4.00 / 2)
The banking industry is still doling out huge bonuses for excessive risk, and has spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying against regulations such as these.
Stop the robbery of the public commons and the rewarding of robber barons.  Do not allow those that play havoc with the economy to go rewarded to their rose garden.
The use of derivatives is betting (4.00 / 2)
As more is known about the risk that have been taken, for the sake of more profit, the more I am convinced that the focus of our financial industry is far askew from where it should be. Their risk-taking and their massive benefits from this risk, are in drastic contrast to the effects that remains behind of what was our economy. Large segments of our society may never be able to recuperate- either financially nor in health.

There needs to be some larger influence on the decision makers at the banks. They need to feel the impact of their risks, and not just pass it off onto the taxpaying public, only to be paid off for the bail-out by huge bonuses.

Personally, I have been conservative with my finances. But, due to the effects of these derivatives on our markets: my house is approaching 75% underwater (13 years into a 30 yr fixed), my 401K are below their market values of 15 years ago, my daughter is facing $60K annually in college cost (fully related to the loss of endowment). My story is not the worst I know, by far.

We need to reinforce the public good nature of the financial institutions. We need to reinforce the value of minimalizing risk- not maximizing!

The comp plan controls behavior. (4.00 / 1)
If one assumes that employees act in their own self-interest, one needs incentives for activities that benefit the company and disincentives for those that do not.

If one assumes that compensation panels act in the companies' self-interest, their rewarding of excessive risk may treat risk rewards as profit but not similarly recognize risk losses. Their choices may derive from the assumption that they will be bailed out. This is a "moral hazard" that may have been exacerbated by the recent bailout but is too late to change.

We must consider two other possibilities. One is that the committee may not be able to fill a position if they require the candidate to participate in losses.

The other is that they see their class and that of the executive as "entitled" to a bonus regardless of performance.

Those two possibilities can and should be resolved by legislation. Failure to do so turns the stockholders' equity into a candy-jar for greedy incompetents.


Banking Regulations (4.00 / 2)
I urge the FDIC to adopt this meansure and I urge the Congress to reinstate all other banking regulations that have been repealed.  I am angry about the bonuses bankers receive.  No one is worth more than a million dollars a year.  Greed has taken over and needs to be confronted.  
Listen to William K. Black and Elizabeth Warren! (4.00 / 2)
Among other things.

There ought to be arrests en masse (and hundreds of more regulators to take care of them) beyond just financial penalization.  If there were a banking equivalent to disbarrment or losing a license I'd say that as well.

Come to think of it, these people are directing our country's resource stream, why can't there be more rigorous requirements that need to be met by bankers befitting their true capacity for mismanagement?  You would never let an unregulated doctor operate on the body of an individual, why on Earth would you let an unaccountable corporation operate on the body of our country's financial health?  That's just completely absurd.

Joseph Stiglitz said in a recent interview that we're more strict with our poor than our ultra-rich.  That state of affairs needs to end immediately.

Short-term thinking at great cost to the rest of us is ruining the country.  Do whatever it takes to make long-term stability the best way to run these banks.

Figuring out how to be a progressive college graduate transplant to Ohio:  http://citizenobie.wordpress.com/

FDIC regulation (4.00 / 1)
A very important regulation - get it through!
Proposed Regulation (4.00 / 2)
For some reason, regulatory bodies of the U.S. government have not been doing their job, with disastrous results. Please do your job and provide regulation to de-incentivize executives from taking gross financial risks at financial institutions that are "too big to fail"!
Thank you,
Joe McHugh
San Francisco, CA
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility (0.00 / 0)
If Bank executives are not help accountable for their actions, they will not change their behavior.
FDIC Rewarding Banks? (0.00 / 0)
Please DON'T reward banks that reward executives who take excessive risks that lead to economic catastrophe.
This is like rewarding criminals for destroying the economy, STOP THIS insane rescue and rewarding system NOW!
The wrong businesses are being rescued here, you're rewarding the criminals, not the victims, STOP THIS NOW!
Releasing my anger (4.00 / 1)
President Obama's kid gloves treatment of Wall Street has done something truly remarkable.  I'm a hard-left liberal, yet I find that I agree with the Teabaggers in being angry at the bailout of the Wall Street gamblers.  Any policy that motivates the hard-left and the hard-right to agree cannot be right.  Populist rage threatens to sweep away any incumbent who rewards Wall Street while punishing Main Street.
Fiscal Terrorism (0.00 / 0)
These people are more dangerous than terrorists. The damage and long term harm is significantly higher than the efforts of a group of religous extremists. The practices of Wall Street and the TBTF Investment Bankers need to be seriously curtailed.
FDIC - Banking Regulation (4.00 / 1)
Why, why, why?  Any child would know this situation is wrong.  Everyone knows we have all been taken advantage of.  Its not about a free market, its about banks and wall street blatently ripping people off and endless greed.  324 million desperate people living paycheck to paycheck, and 1 million people controlling everything, sitting on all of the wealth they robbed from pensions, savings and investments.  Tens of millions of people have worked their whole lives to now end up with nothing - some don't even have their home anymore.  And all so a small few can have more, more, more...  Why??
Enact True Integrity! (4.00 / 1)
We have all witnessed repeatedly what happens when you reward the greedy behaviors and actions of executive board members of financial institutions. It is understandable that they are merely acting out of their their state of consciousness, but at the folly of all everyone else. This new regulation is a step in the right direction.

Major changes have been, and continue to take place as I write this note; major institutions once thought as invincible have dissolved before our very eyes and this continues to happen. In the 2nd financial quarter this year, when all of the bad paper from the commercial real estate market comes to maturity it would not serve the American people or the World to just hand out billions to try and bail these entities, but rather to put the money where it will count, into education and infrastructure and to the people that will lose their jobs and have their homes foreclosed otherwise. It is time to invest in People again, and I don't mean the wealthiest 5 percent, they have plenty of wealth as it is, I am talking about the other 95% of people in this country.

A simple guide to use is as follows: any new regulation or guidelines should be based on, and always reflect the following three principles:

1.) Awareness (that includes transparency at all levels)
2.) Honesty (imagine how this would change our economics!)
3.) Responsibility (wow!)

-Thanks for your time and attention.  

Stop the criminal insanity NOW (4.00 / 1)
It is way past time to reign in the bankers gambling with our money and then rewarding the high risk behavior with huge bonuses based on them gambling with other peoples money with out any assets to back up the funds they are gambling with!  Then just to pour salt on our fresh wounds they spend millions lobbying congress to write the rules that protect them and their huge salaries and bonuses instead of protecting the American people and our economy.  Instead of learning from the near collapse of our entire banking system based on fraudulent activity, they have just been bailed out and immediately returned the exact activities that got us in the position in the first place.  Placing bets on other entities products and the whole derivatives markets are just more of the same all the while putting money in the hands of what are supposed to be OUR representatives to protect their back sides.  when will this insanity end!  It won't end until enough of us are so fed up that we come down hard and stay on target with OUR representatives in Washington, as well as beg the FDIC to protect our interests and put a stop to all of this now!  Please FDIC it is our money you use to bail out these entities or cover their losses when the bank fails, so please listen to us now as we beg for your help in reigning in these outrageous practices that brought our economy to its knees last year and looks like it is ready to go again.  Please penalize these bankers who are rewarding the risky behavior of their executives with huge bonuses backed by the American people against our will!
financial regulations (4.00 / 1)
it is high time wall street pays for the reckless financial strategies which brought our economy to the brink of collapse. please put limits on compensation for executives who promoted these strategies. have them put the money into making loans to people who need them instead.
FDIC Proposed Banking Regulation (4.00 / 1)
I strongly support the FDIC's proposed regulation to penalize banksters who take excessive risks. No loopholes.
Frank Stangel
Princeville, HI 96722
A Common Sense Regulatory Adjustment (4.00 / 1)
Of course if there is more incentive to pursue a more risky, rather than a more safer course, then the more risky course will be chosen. I believe it was Dean Baker, in his comment on the FDIC site, who states that economic theory predicts that bank executives will follow that riskier course. Of course they will, I don't need ecomomic theory to tell me that. If these incentives  are a factor in the likely failure of an institution, then that factor must be included in the regulations covering the fees assesed for FDIC membership. Thank you for your attention.  
Regulate banks and Wall Street!! (4.00 / 1)
I find it outrageous that a year and a half after the US almost collapsed into a depression, banks are right back to getting their dangerous profits at our expense!

It's obvious that they can't control themselves so regulations on bonuses need to be in place. If there isn't a gigantic incentive to gamble on debt with the average person's money maybe they'll go back to trading on actual commodities.

And I'm sick of hearing about how those bonuses are needed to keep talented workers. If they were so talented then our country wouldn't be in the mess that it is now. We see through your doubletalk and know that you're full of nothing but hot air, greed and lies.

Bankers are out of control and need to be reined-in, they won't do it themselves (4.00 / 2)
They pushed faulty loans, hedged their bets with insurance, gouged the public to bail them out and now pay themselves massive bonuses!

Hello!

Addiction takes many forms, including that of unmitigated greed. Addicts care not for anyone or anything except the constant increased supply of their craving, which is, in the case of wall street crooks, money.

When addiction goes beyond the person addicted and affects everyone, it is time  to put an end to the mayhem.

Curb the bankers!

Stop the thieves once an for all (4.00 / 1)
It's clear they want to steal the middle class blind and return to the Gilt Age when we all had to bow an doff our hats when the mighty passed by!!  Regulate and prosecute where necessary!!
FDIC Re-regulation (4.00 / 2)
Its time to bring back the Glass-Steagall Act and make Volcker rules law!! Congress and businessmen need a history lessons, seems they forgot everything and those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It only took a short 10 years since finance and business de-regulated for this mightly country to fell in a depression. Vote to re-install the Glass-Steagall Act and make Volcker rules law!! Or you're a terrorist (financial)and un-American! and will be voted out of office!
Proposed FDIC regulation (0.00 / 0)
There are several parts to this:

1) Is the FDIC regulating to do it's own work (insuring against public losses) or the job of the Treasury or the SEC or the CFTC?

2) Can they really define what 'too risky' is?

3) Can we tell, at this early date, the effects, in improving the safety of the overall system, of other new regulations that Chris Dodd & Barney Frank are working on? And, then, how would this new FDIC rule interact with or negate those rules?

These questions need to be considered before really considering whether to add the new rule.

direct link for posting public comments at FDIC (0.00 / 0)
http://www.fdic.gov/regulation...

There are currently three proposed regulations:

1) Treatment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as Conservator or Receiver of Financial Assets Transferred by an Insured Depository Institution in Connection With a Securitization or Participation After March 31, 2010.
12 CFR Part 360 - RIN 3064-AD55. [deadline for public comment: 2/22/2010]

2) Incorporating Employee Compensation Criteria Into the Risk Assessment System.  12 CFR Part 327 - RIN 3064-AD56. [deadline for public comment: 2/18/2010]

3) Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request. Forms Related to Processing of Deposit Insurance Claims. [deadline for public comment: 3/3/2010]

There are PDF links to full text of the proposed regulations (should you care to make a fully informed comment), and hypertext links to public comment forms.  

It's a big game that repeats every 20 years. (0.00 / 0)
Every 20 years a big banking scandal looms along with the panic that it could bring down the entire system. Congress passes bank bailouts at tax payer expense to "protect confidence in the system." Then we get some minor tweaks and a few years later more of the protective scaffolding of regulation gets torn down to allow more risk taking. The next bailout dwarfs the last bailout, and it those who predicted it were removed from their positions.

What we have is the banking system harvesting more profits from the public every 20 years, after public memory of the last bailout has faded. I expect the next bailout in 20 years to dwarf the latest. They will paint it with fear and panic with a new excuse that the world will collapse unless lawmakers give total submission to banker's demands for cash. Each is more urgently that the latest bailout. Then the biggest banks eat the smaller ones while the taxpayer waits in vain for relief. It's nothing but a scam, and it will happen again in 20 years.

Wall Street; Vegas . . . What's the difference? (0.00 / 0)
Simple, the odds are better in Vegas.
Wall Street is a back-alley crap shoot with the Fed for a pit boss. If you aren't a member of the club, you're screwed and so is America.
Unless we geld these monsters, America is going down.
bankers (4.00 / 1)
Bankers should be made to pay for the havoc they caused our economy, not benefit.

We need serious regulation that prevents this from reoccuring.

Gambling with deposits & taxes should be outlawed (4.00 / 3)
The self-styled "Masters of the Universe" who were "doing God's work" of crashing our economy, devastating our middle class, and destituting the lower class by gambling away people's hard-earned deposits should be prosecuted for fraud and criminal fiduciary negligence, and their "too-big-to-fail" institutions should be broken down to manageable size.

Instead, our government rewarded these epic failures by bailing them out with our hard-earned tax dollars in the form of TARP funds, and force-merged them into even-bigger institutions. This was supposed to get the banks to start lending to people and businesses again, but it didn't.

Our government then further rewarded them by giving them nearly unlimited interest-free loans, which they simply turned around and invested in interest-bearing Treasury Notes. In other words, the government paid them to borrow money, using our hard-earned tax dollars. It was a brilliant scam that the robber barons in the banks and federal government assumed we wouldn't see through, but it too failed to coax the banks to start lending to people and businesses again...

...until they had amassed enough of this free interest to "pay back" their bailouts and even post record profits, upon which our government rewarded their profligacy a third time by conveniently losing all negotiating leverage, so that they are once again free to gamble away our deposits, mortgages, and taxes, for which they are once again rewarded with astronomical pay. The only difference is that, where before there was uncertain risk, they now know that the government will bail them out with our tax dollars. Heads, they win; tails, we lose.

The proposed regulation by the Federal Deposit Insurance Casino is a small but essential step towards preventing a recurrence of this catastrophe. In addition, we need to:
+ reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act to separate banks from casinos;
+ root out the corrupting influence of financial institutions (and other corporations) on our government;
+ regulate all "derivatives";
+ tax all financial speculation;
+ require capital and liquid assets proportional to risk;
+ break open the Fed;
+ tax capital gains at higher rates than honestly earned income;
+ reinstate usury laws forbidding charging interest higher than 5% (including all fees);
+ reinstate and enforce antitrust laws to break up unmanageably large corporations;
+ vigorously prosecute the venal politicians and predatory gamblers who promoted and exploited this disastrously deregulated financial system.  

Gambling should be outlawed (4.00 / 1)
You have managed to summarize a complex problem and make it easier to understand, thanks.  It certainly makes the bandaid that the FDIC is proposing look incredibly insubstantial.  In todays Congress, though, it may be the only thing that would make it into law.  If that.
[ Parent ]
I fully agree that this is an important but exceedingly small step (4.00 / 1)
This step should be passed immediately.  It should not require much consultation, because anyone who disagrees with it given the results of the past 10 years is either not paying attention or has other interests at heart than the stability of the global economy.

What should be studied - for a few months - and then put into law and regulation - is a much larger scheme for financial regulation that will ensure that the financial sector is accountable to the people, and not the other way around.  And this has to be undertaken by any body that is remotely connected with this process - from Congress to Executive agencies to even the Justice Department.

Economic stability in the short term was the reason we were told we needed the massive bailouts that have hamstrung the ability to fund very necessary projects in the short term, medium term, and long term.  Now, if that's the aim, I want to see long term strategy that's going to deliver it.  

[ Parent ]
Its a national security issue (4.00 / 1)
I favor penalizing banks that continue risking the publics wealth on questionable investments, and giving huge bonuses to executives that have not had the fiduciary interests of Americans in mind.
This is as much of a national security issue as terrorists from foreign countries, and has done our nation more damage.
Thank you.
Lari Power
Financial regulation (4.00 / 2)
It is the job of the FDIC to control the banks. They have become blatant thieves. They take our money and gamble it away all the while rewarding themselves in excess for making those bets. We lose and we do not have confidence in the banking system. Congress and the other regulators are doing nothing so it must be up to the FDIC to crack down on this outrageous behavior. They need consequences.
FDIC (4.00 / 1)
I TOTALLY support the FDIC's efforts in proposing a new regulation that will financially penalize banks that reward executives for taking excessive risks. In the meantime, I might suggest that everyone mover their money and investments to Credit Unions and small, unaffiliated local banks with high security ratings.  If we expect others to reign in their greed, we need to as well.
Unregulated banking (4.00 / 1)
Obviously none of these clowns in Washington paid attention in history class. We have experienced many catastrophes due to lack of regulation of the greedy banking industry in our past and they allow it to repeat over and over. I suggest that the politicians take some of their bribery money and buy the book "NOTHING TO FEAR" by Adam Cohen, which explains what FDR had to do in his first 100 days to rein in the unscrupulous, scheming, bankers.
Financiaal Regulations (4.00 / 1)
I think penalizing risky financial behavior is one strand in a web of regulations. Propose bringing back Glass Stregle. Break up institutions to big to fail; To big to fail = To big to exist. Regulate next bailout will be paid back with heavy penalties. wall street melted the global economy and many on main street don't think they should be rewarded.
When is Obama going to regulate Wall Street, derivatives, credit default swaps, etc.? (4.00 / 2)
[color=blue]This is where we progressives get depressed and discouraged.  People know what needs to be done.  Read the comments here, Barack, if you need help.  Bring back Glass Steagall which the centrist Bill Clinton got rid of in 1999.  Why are we still privatizing the profits but socializing the losses?  Too big to fail is too big to exist.  Where's the change we can believe in?  Why do the Repubs always take charge of issues, even though they are the minority party?  I don't get it.[/color]
Bonuses for taking risky investments are not bad they need to be structured properly (0.00 / 0)
If the bonuses for creating and selling risky investments pays very little at first and pays only after ten years and twenty years, guess they will be very risk averse very quickly! Claw backs wont work since they may declare bankruptcy. What do you do then?  
I agree with this regulation being put in place. (0.00 / 0)
Obviously the abuse has gone on for too long.  The consequences are dealt with by us and not those actually at fault for the mess.  We bailed many of the larger banks out, fine, it's done with.  Now let's put regulation in place that limits the influence that they can have over situations like this.
Anti-trust (4.00 / 2)

Please bust some trusts. They have abused their monopolies to the extent there are few enough that they can be broken up.
Regulating Banks (4.00 / 1)
Just listening to folks like Blankenfein talk makes me sick.  "God's work" indeed - 10% of their business is investment banking, the rest is making money for themselves.  Even some of the socially conscious bankers say they need more regulation because they can't help themselves otherwise.  Let's give it to them.
We need some common sense and regulations (4.00 / 1)
It is absurd to financially reward those who play, actually they gamble, with our money. Too many people have lost the money they expected to use after retirement. To reward these gamblers is absurd and the amounts of these bonuses is even more absurd. Doing their job with the fiduciary responsibilities they have should not endanger our futures and that's exactly what has happened.

We need this new regulation.

The people are crying for regulations on banks (4.00 / 1)
to keep them from again becoming casinos and you guys don't seem to get that. We need all the regulations necessary to protect taxpayers and keep the banks from speculating while being protected by us.  
What Needs To Be Done! (0.00 / 0)
The first thing that needs to be done is that the financial institutions have to be made to understand that the citizens of the United States are the sovereigns of this country and that they (the institutions) exist to serve the citizens and exist at "the pleasure of the citizen"!  As part of this "social contract" the institutions need the strictest regulations imposed along with the stiffest penalties for non-compliance.  
regulate risky business (0.00 / 0)
Regulations are needed to keep our economy sane.  The way things are now, we can expect to see more crash and burn in the furure while a few fat cats walk away happy.  How about some reasonable limits that will ensure sound, stable financial business practices over time, and reflect our true ethics as well.
tell FDIC what you think! (0.00 / 0)
Banks need to be better regulated.  If they are the main cause of the current economic disaster (yes - Disaster), maybe you should go even further than exec's bonuses; maybe you should set salaries and bonuses for all executives.  If we are unable to reign in these high stakes dealers, maybe even more serious action needs to be taken by Congress.
by David
Stop the banksters! (0.00 / 0)
We need to go back to seriously regulating banks.  ANY regulation and penalties that helps halt the banks dismantling of the economy of the country through excessive risk and phony wealth creation is needed and necessary.   We also need to think about splitting banks into savings institutions and business institutions as was the case until Clinton deregulated them in the 90s...

"Our society is run by insane people for insane reasons" John Lennon

shameful (0.00 / 0)
The current business model at the highest levels of finance requires the American taxpayer to be the insurer of last resort.  But, unlike most insurers, the American taxpayer is not paid for the risk incurred.  Indeed, those who have passed on the risk to the American public seem to view their great profits as a birth right.  

It's either that, or they view their own predatory actions as somehow ethically justified.

In any case, it is incumbent for the future health of this nation that we not allow the financiers to continue to abuse the marketplaces in pursuit of greater and greater wealth.  

If we can't actually jail these social parasites ... (4.00 / 1)
The least FDIC could do would be to correct the "misalignment of incentives in the securitization process for residential mortgages" and do something about "compensation structures [that] misalign incentives and induce imprudent risk taking within financial organizations."

If, again, we can't actually just pile the executives, derivatives traders and mortgage fraudsters working in all these banks and investment casinos into paddy wagons and send them to a super max facility for life, where they'll no longer be a danger to others.

These unproductive brats have been refusing to invest in job-creating enterprises in the US, rewarding companies for mass layoffs, exerting steady, downward pressure on wages for everyone else in the country, and financially punishing foreign governments for introducing any kind of wage, environmental or worker protections. Then they went and crashed the entire world economy with their reckless greed and smug selfishness, throwing millions out of work and into poverty.

If the world were fair, they'd be reviled by all and reduced to begging in the streets, or maybe forced to work for $2 a day in one of the sweatshops they helped create, or jailed like the gang of callous thieves they are. But if there's even some justice in our society, perhaps they can be prevented from beggaring others in the future.

You've Already Heard . . (0.00 / 0)
. . this before, but the sentiment's pretty plain:  It looks like these big bankster boys got us into a bind because their attitude is "Heads I win, tails you lose" (with our money, as it turns out).  We're very angry at this, and it's not because we didn't get a piece of the action, it's because the whole thing's just so unfair.
Please regulate these guys.
                 Thanks,
                     Bill Paci,
                     Phila., PA 19103  
FDIC regulation (0.00 / 0)
It's simple - regulations must be strong to rein in rewards for risky banking behavior and the penalties must be stronger!
Anne
Bedford Falls, or Pottersville? (4.00 / 1)
Banks are not meant to exist simply to make money.  Of course, they should make a decent profit.  But they also exist to help their communities.  They're supposed to help people build businesses and homes.  Their purpose is not to scam people into loans they can't afford, nor to leverage their deposits to the point where they are riding the ragged edge of disaster.

Let's not forget something.  Banks are using OUR money, OUR deposits, OUR hard-earned savings...they took our own money and used it so irresponsibly that they nearly destroyed our entire economy.

We need to go back to basics.  Borrow at 3%, lend at 6%, and remember that banks exist for a specific REASON, and that reason is NOT to make the bankers rich.  It is to build a better community, a better country, and a better world.

Remember "It's a Wonderful Life"?  Remember George Bailey and Mr. Potter?  Well, unfortunately, while George won in the movie, Mr. Potter won in real life.  We are now in danger of our country becoming one big Pottersville, because the people who use our own money only to figure out bigger and better ways to scam us out of it care for nothing but their own riches, not the wreckage they leave behind and the lives they unravel in their wake.

This behavior should not be rewarded.  It should be punished.  Let's stop with the $100 million bonuses to reckless bank CEOs, and get back to basics.  It's time to purge our banks of their "Mr. Potter" mentality, and encourage and reward the George Baileys of this world.

Sincerely,
Chris Carlson
Vancouver, Washington

We need new regulations at the FDIC (0.00 / 0)
In every job I have ever worked, if I do poorly, I am evaluated and penalized or fired for bad work. If this does not happen, our free enterprise system will fall apart. The richest banks have found a way to get around this. They gamble with our money, and whether they win or lose, the make a fortune. Meanwhile, the rest of America suffers for the bad decisions made by these wealthy bankers. If the FDIC does not find a way to make these banks more accountable, I fear that the trust that American citizens must have in their government to avoid violent social upheaval will fall below the threshhold. We are already seeing signs of this in the "Teaparty" movement. It is essential for the survival of America as we know it that this changes, and changes now.  
responsibility (0.00 / 0)
The FDIC needs to control our financial system, to take away the incentives for irresponsible behavior. Our country has become very fragile due to the effects of greedy behavior on the part of finance industry cowboys.  Please outlaw bonuses for risky behavior on the part of money managers.
Margaret Thomas
1000 21st St.
Rock Island IL 61201
Regulating bonuses of banking CEOs (0.00 / 0)
Outsize bonuses for CEOs who take risks with depositors' money should be greatly regulated. They make money, I lose it. Surely the current crisis has shown that deregulation was one of the worst moves ever made by a government. Since CEOs are not moved by ethicality, they must be ruled by regulations. "Backstop and withhold until risk satisfied" states the case very well. I am FED UP with these guys!
FDIC (0.00 / 0)
Isn't it time this country grow up.  We go through these failures every 6 or 7 years and the only thing done is less regulation and bigger failures.  Canada did not allow their banks to get sucked into our created mess.  Responsible government protects its people not the uber- rich.
If not jail, then personal insult (0.00 / 0)
Pass a law that all banksters and their minions must wear uniforms appropriate to their jobs. Gold lame' jump-suits and sequined tuxedoes, for example. And Wall Street needs more lights - flashing signs, lifesize reproductions of world monuments,displays of pirate ships, too. Some folks dressed up in animal suits or sandwich boards walking the Strip Wall Street and hustling marks into the foyers of the investment houses (with free buffet, of course) where large noisy machines help the hucksters to peel the $ out of our wallets.

Jazz the place up a bit, you know, folks don't seem to mind losing their money in Vegas or Atlantic City - get a clue, dudes.  

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

FDIC proposed legislation (0.00 / 0)
Have we learned nothing from history?  When a society allows the "few" to amass the vast majority of the wealth, it does not end well.  I hope this legislation is a step in the right direction in controlling the unbridled greed that will lead to more hard times for all of us.
Need Strong Penalties to Restrain Greedy Bankers (0.00 / 0)
I strongly support the FDIC's proposed regulation to financially penalize banks that reward bank executives to take    fiscally irresponsible risks.  We need to focus on our nation's long-term financial health and provide growth opportunities.  I am appalled at the amoral behavior of American Banks and Wall Street that have created this financial crisis.  The FDIC has the responsibility to punish banks for future irresponsible behavior.  Please pass this legislation NOW!  
FDIC and financial regulations (0.00 / 0)
Penalizing excessive risk taking is but one step in correcting the problems we face today.  I would also want to know how "excessive" would be determined.

I truely believe to prevent what has ocurred from happening again, we must return to the separation of investment/banking. Deregulation, which occurred under Reagan (?), created this free for all in which, even Greenspan admits, the market can not regulate itself when wholesale greed is thrown into the mix.

Investment firms and those who wish to take high risks need to be, once again,  a separate entity from banks.

Regulate Investment Bankers! (0.00 / 0)
In all ways possible, the Feds must closely regulate the investment banks to insure that they do not take huge risks designed to reap short-terms gains.  We must not allow them to take these risks, privatize their profits and socialize the risk through bailouts with taxpayor money!  They must be kept to a size (in financial value) that prevents them from being "too big to fail".   They also must be kept from manipulating the commodity markets (particularly for food and fuel)for finanacial gain and prosecuted vigorously when they do.  Middle income Americans should be protected from their greedy ways.  It is obvious they cannot police themselves and the market will NOT police itself.
Releasing my anger (0.00 / 0)
The FDIC needs to put an end to the too big to fail banks and regulate banks and Wall Street financial institutions with the same type of regulations that FDR had implemented and which made our banking and financial system a model for other countries to emulate.  Our banking and financial system was the envy of the world.  What former President Ronald Reagan did to our country by deregulating almost everything, has resulted in the economic woes we are experiencing today.
FDIC plan to link banks' insurance premiums to the risk-taking encouraged by executive pay policies. (0.00 / 0)
Please do whatever you can to eliminate the incentive to take large, unsustainable risk with bank deposits. Using deposit insurance as a way to pay back reckless lending and investment practices makes no sense. Bailing out reckless lenders with taxpayer money makes even less sense. Paying bonuses to people who engage in this behavior is criminal, in my book. please do whatever you can to stop these practices.  
FDIC is right - charge greater premiums for greater risk (0.00 / 0)
I like this FDIC idea. It is standard procedure in other insurance areas to charge a higher premium to carry higher risk. And so it should be here.  However, I would add that more than just executive pay should be analyzed. Internal structures and policies that encourage/discourage high risk trading especially at the floor level should also be analyzed. How are the actual traders compensated?  How are they penalized for "bad" trades?  What is a "bad" trade? What are the permission rules for trades?  On what basis are traders hired and what are their expectations (their own and the company's - both written and unwritten).  
FDIC New Rule (0.00 / 0)
I've had the FDIC bail out 3 banks for me, so far. Something is very, very wrong. I agree with others who feel there should be a limit on income for incompetance.
FDIC and Risk Management of Banks and Wall St. (0.00 / 0)
The FDIC needs to act now on the proposed new regulation to limit risk taking as a bank management practice.  

I also believe that the financial industry needs to have risk-intense investing strategies backstopped by tangible assets--not credit default swaps, derivates, or other "insurance."  I also believe that major regulations need to be created to stop abuses in banking and on wall street.

I also believe that transaction fees should be applied to all stock transactions.

I also believe that all strategic resources like oil should not be traded as commodities.

I also believe the FED should be nationalized so as not to be to beyond the control of the government not to be controlled by banks.


FDIC (0.00 / 0)
Yes, absolutely, regulate the banks.  They've been disaster for the whole world, not just us.  The bankers certainly don't deserve huge bonuses for ruining the worldwide economy.  Get it done!
Accountability (0.00 / 0)
Not only has the reprehensible behavior of the bankers and speculators been ruinous to ordinary people, it has endangered the country by ruining the economy. They cannot be trusted to police themselves for the common good. We need someone to keep an eye on them.
FDIC (4.00 / 2)
It's a little shocking, and rather disingenuous, that the FDIC need the public to write and tell you whether linking insurance premiums to risk-taking is a good idea. So if enough people don't comment, mostly unaware of this, is that a sign we don't think so?
Yes Virginia, pass your regulation, but know it doesn't go far enough. Know there's much more to do. Fraud is defined as a crime in law, regardless of collar color, and the public also wants prosecutions, and monies returned too. Think about it like shoplifting economies if that helps.  
Fiduciary Responsibility (0.00 / 0)
It's our money.  We expect executives to be paid NOT to take excessive and reckless risks.  Isn't that what fiduciary means?
Reign in the Banks (0.00 / 0)
Without strong regulations to prevent profits over common sense we will all go thru this again.  We need strong regulations by the Fed to prevent another melt-down and Wall Street bailout.
Comment to FDIC (4.00 / 1)
I support the idea of charging higher insurance premiums to banks that take more risks.  

In the summer of 2008 my small town banker told me he was worried that FDIC would raise his premiums to cover the cost of bank failures.  He is a very conservative banker and he resents being penalized for the reckless behavior of other bankers.  He said higher FDIC premiums would come straight from the bottom line of this little bank.

To the extent that FDIC can spot risky practices, it owes all insured banks a sensible policy that accounts for the risk.  Thank you for being the first agency to actually do something about the problem.
Jerry Depew, Laurens, Iowa

Shocking (4.00 / 1)
I agree with an above poster: it is shocking that the FDIC needs citizens to petition it to do its job of regulating the criminal enterprise known as Wall Street. Maybe next the government can try simply putting lobbyists in charge of the regulatory agencies responsible for policing the lobbyists' employers. Oh wait...
More oversight needed (0.00 / 0)
is it true that the FDIC is proposing a new regulation that will financially penalize banks that pay executives to take excessive risks?  if so, great idea. I've had it with this system  that rewards executives who toy with our financial system (not that i think it's great. but it's What We Got),and whose sole motivation is to see great profit for themselves, at the expense of those who they should  be safeguarding.
  thank you, Jan/ portland, 97212
All systems need rules to function (4.00 / 1)
Baseball wouldn't be playable without an umpire.

The role of regualation is to create the Rules of the Game.
Actually without rules,  not only would there be no fairness, the game itself could not even exist.

That is the essential role of government.  

We only need to look at the fact that these financial firms have only themselves in mind. They feel they have no obligation to the larger political community they are a part of.  They do however think we American people have an obligation to keep themselves,  not only afloat, but enormously, obscenely wealthy.  

The massive salaries and bonuses of the last 3 decades have distorted American economic life.  They have played a direct role in the largest increasing, gap in economic inequality since the last Depression.. The last one in which unregulated, financial products helped to bring down the American economy.  The financial regulations of the New Deal saved both American capitialism and American democracy.  Enormous economic ineqaulity mitilates against a healthy democracy.

Before the economic crisis of Sept 15, 2008 huge bonuses meant rich people became rich, not by the sweat of their brow, but by the harm they caused to others.  300 million in bonus money back then translated into the loss of tens of thousands of jobs all down the economic ladder.

After the crisis, it became very clear that the fatal nexus between enormous bonuses and the incredibly risky financial "products" was ready to bring down the economy of many countries.

Their wealth did, does and will continue to impoverish this country both individually and in the aggregate.

Not passing strong regulations would be a sin...  

"Incrementalism isn't a different path to the same place, it could be a different path to a different place"
Stoller

Gamblers (0.00 / 0)
Ideally these huge banks should be broken up, and
derivatives should be outlawed.

But, short of that, at the very least, this law should
be passed putting limits on the size of compensation
paid to these irresponsible gamblers.

The banks and Wall Street need to be heavily regulated. (4.00 / 1)
Their greedy and risky behavior has destroyed lives, jobs, and futures.  If you steal a loaf of bread in America,  you go to jail.  If you lie us into war, torture, or destroy the economy, you get a pension and million dollar bonuses.  

Glass-Steagall and usury laws need to be put back.  They worked for years, and there was never any reason to eliminate them other than to allow politicians new opportunities to sell out this country and the people in it.  

Goldman Sachs belongs in jail, not in charge of Treasury.  We demand regulation and justice.  

FDIC (4.00 / 1)
It is time for those who take risks and expect the government to bail them out, to pay the price for their errors.  I think the proposal by the FDIC is neccessary to insure this does not happen again.
From Ruth Camp (0.00 / 0)
A woman who didn't want to join the site asked me to post her comment.  Here it is:

I feel that the banking (& other financial) industries need to be totally reined in.  The top executives should all be replaced.  And there need to be regulations in place that limit their compensation, both salary and any bonuses or "perks" they receive.  The monies that they would have received should go to support those employees who are lowest in scale, in a "trickle up" fashion.  The world would be a much nicer place is there were more "trickle up" processes in place!  Those who are at the "bottom of the totem pole" often work the hardest and without their efforts the company would be no where, despite the smartest brains.

Here name is Ruth Camp.

Release your anger! | 124 comments
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