Who are the bad guys?Who's responsible for the near destruction of our U.S. economy and in fact, the world's economy? The truly terrible thing is everybody knows who did it: The big brokerage firms and the big hedge funds! They created sub-prime mortgages which caused the real estate bubble and subsequently the real estate crash.
Objective: We've got to put the bad guys in jail for a change and throw away the key. And most important of all, we have to take 100% of their money away and not leave them with one red cent. The big firms are motivated by two things: greed and money. They were also stupid and did themselves in as well as our country. Many of us have known that they were corrupt and greedy but the stupid is something new.
When we put these guys in jail, we don't want them getting out again. None of this Michael Milkin nonsense. Remember him? The junk bond king who was charged with securities fraud?
He had to pay $600 million in fines, which seems like a lot of money, but not compared to the $200-$550 million a year he was making at the height of his success. He was also sentenced to ten years in prison, but was released in less than two years and went home to hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. What's wrong with this picture?!
I wish the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were worthless. Why would I wish for a government agency to be worthless when we want them to work for us to protect us? Because worthless would be a huge improvement as to what they are now: harmful.
Harry Marcopolous, the whistle blower who told us about Madoff's $65 billion ponzi scheme, pointed out that the SEC was actually protecting Madoff. It was in their best interest to not upset a powerful and influential person on Wall Street when they want to eventually work for one of the big brokerage firms and earn a much higher salary.
Working for the SEC for around 5 years then working for one of the big brokerage firms is a common career path. This revolving door issue is one of the many things that needs to change in order for the SEC to become effective.
Mr. Marcopolus also pointed out while he was testifying, that only one person in the entire SEC could read a derivative perspective and know what it meant. Proof, once again, that the SEC doesn't have a clue of what they are doing. How can they regulate what they don't have expertise in?
Solution:
1. We must eliminate the SEC as we know it today. 4500 incompetent employees in an ineffective department is a waste.
2. A new SEC needs to be created which only regulates the big brokerage firms. FINRA should focus on only regulating the independent firms. The SEC is only trying to enforce rules and regulations don't apply to small independent firms. Their extra man power should be solely focused on the highly complex and sophisticated regulations of the big brokerage industry to prevent further destruction of the financial world.
3. The new SEC should employee around 100 people and then should hire the following outside people and companies so they can pay whatever it takes to get the best and they will be able to stay out of the bureaucratic mess and actually get the job done:
a.Hire the best forensic accounting firm - Fraud experts who find evidence in the accounting firms to bring the bad guys to the bar of justice. They will help eliminate the fraud, deception, and stupidity in Wall Street.
b. Hire the best Wall Street law firm. Maybe they were the Wall Street firm for Merrill Lynch also known as Murder Lynch so they couldn't go in to Meryl Lynch but they could certainly go into UBS also known as WeBSU because they were all doing the same things, they know exactly what was being done and could help the forensic accounting people find all the bodies.
c. Hire the best derivatives guy working on Wall Street. He would certainly be able to understand a derivatives statement. You put them together with the best forensic guys, the best law firms and you have a squad that can take down the bad guys. The SEC is totally incapable right now.
Help me take this dramatic action that needs to be taken by putting pressure on congress to force them to do the right thing for a change. Write your congressman and president: email them, snail mail them, phone them, buttonhole them on the street; do everything you can to get them to do what's right for a change.
It is time for us as Americans to stand up for our country and fight the evil doers on Wall Street. You can use the letters that I have on the website I would suggest you use them primarily as ideas for letters to congress because form letters don't get as big of credence from congress as does your own written or verbal words.
Join the War on Wall Street and help save our country. If you have ideas to help in the War on Wall Street and other things that we should be paying attention to, please join the blog and help us with your ideas. We all need to work together to stop this atrocity.
