A LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN

Now is the time dear BANZAI7 readers, to fish or cut bait. If you want to see effective financial reform, you had better communicate your view above the swarm of Wall Street lobbyists that have descended on Capitol Hill. I have prepared a suggested letter that you and your friends and relatives can send to your local Congressman and Senator. I suggest that you print it on sturdy letter stock and mail it from your local post office. Make sure that the letter is headed with your name and local address. Sign it in blue ink. Need help finding the right addresses? Look here.

Of course, this is a letter that I have written for your convenience. Feel free to modify it to your liking. The letter is written for the financial layman. If you are a financial type and you agree with what it says,  I assume you can write your own letter. If you disagree with what it says, I encourage you to use the linked resources to write your own letter. As far as I am concerned, any letter from an actual person is better than a letter from a bank lobbyist representing a bank.

I am not suggesting that a letter will solve all our problems. But if we can't send a simple letter, any letter, we really have no business complaining.

Your Home Address Here

April   , 2010

[To Your Senator:]

The Honorable (full name)
[District Office Address]

          RE: FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

Dear Senator:

[To Your Representative:]

The Honorable (full name) 

          [District office Address]

RE: FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

Dear Representative:

As one of your constituents, I sincerely hope that you will extend the courtesy of reading this letter which I have endeavored to keep brief and to the point.

I am writing to let you know that I am outraged by the unprecedented series of disastrous financial events that have befallen our economy and our country. As far as this voter is concerned, blame for the economic Everest that we and our children must now collectively climb can be laid squarely on the doorstep of Wall Street USA.  Although they will never admit it, the robber barons running the American consumer financial industrial complex have committed a terrible disservice to all decent and hard working Americans.

It is an absolute outrage that the same people who caused the economic mess we now find ourselves in, have been allowed to return to business as usual. I am not disputing the need for a strong banking system. However, to allow the perpetrators of a giant systemic fraud to pretend that they did nothing wrong and to allow them to assert that drastic change is uncalled for,  is an injustice that simply cannot be allowed.

Everyday I am reading and hearing about how we don't need a strong and independent consumer financial protection agency to control predatory banking practices, it's not necessary to dismantle the same grossly mismanaged 2Big2Fail institutions that we just finished bailing out, derivatives are good for all of us and require little or no oversight, financial innovation is America's calling.

I am tired of hearing it. I am tired of listening to those who attempt to smokescreen the substantive issues with rhetoric about the evils of big government.  In my opinion, our massive regulatory failure was not caused by big government, it was caused by politically appointed idiots who advocated the ludicrous thesis that markets will self regulate fraud.

I am tired of listening to banker welfare beneficiaries cast the blame on Main Street.

I am tired of listening to financiers like Jamie Dimon lecture us about the best way to regulate predatory boilerplate in credit card statements and mortgage finance documents.

I am tired of listening to Goldman Sachs tell us that they did nothing wrong. Their model is a model that does not need to be fixed.

Enough is enough!

I am proud to admit that I am not a Wall Street banker with an Ivy League MBA in finance. I am certainly not spending millions of dollars a day on a targeted lobbying campaign and I am not equipped to provide a detailed power point presentation critiquing Senator Dodd and Representive Frank's competing Bills.

But I will tell you what my common sense tells me. Any regulatory solution that is acceptable to the bankers is a solution destined to failure. They deserve no credibility or quarter. As far as I am concerned, the louder the bank lobby screams about proposed reforms, the more I will be convinced that something is finally being done right.

I earnestly hope you will agree with my assessment as you consider the various reform alternatives. I also hope you will pay careful attention to make sure that proposed derivative regulations are not watered down with bank lobby driven loopholes.  I hope you will agree that Mr. Volcker's proposed rule should be passed in its original form.  I hope something is done about dismantling the financial conglomerates that have come to unduly expose our economy to systemic risk. Finally and most importantly, I hope you will give proper consideration to what your constituents, not Wall Street,  are saying.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours sincerely,


________________________

[Read about how to write your Congressman: here. ]