Financial Crisis

By Gail K. Lightfoot

Insure investors and homeowners just as we do bank deposits.

Will we be able to pay off our personal debt? Will the government [at all levels] be able to do the necessary maintenance of roads, buildings, records, elections, etc and pay off its debt as well? We all want answers to these questions and Washington hopes to give them to us with more rules, regulations and even some fraud indictments.

Is more government regulation the solution? Not if the problem is fraud and not if part of the problem is government programs. Who gave the federal government the right to buy up mortgages so banks could sell more mortgages? Not you or I or the Constitution. Yet, they did and they do and that means more homes have mortgages the taxpayer is ultimately liable for if owners default.

We must indict those who defrauded others no matter where they stand in the hierarchy of power and control. Individuals who learn they mislead or their lender was mislead regarding their ability to pay should report the facts to local district attorneys and companies allowing illegal practices to slide by must be held accountable. We may end up with more jobs in the civil and criminal courts processing such claims. Again, I cannot think of a better way to add jobs to our economy.

At the same time, a way [via the private sector, individuals and banks] to insure investors and homeowners just as we do bank deposits needs to be put in place so small investors and individual homeowners are protected from the misdeeds of those higher up the financial market chain.

Instead of Congress using taxpayers money so we each pay a small amount to protect the economy against downturns, we should be building a secure insurance industry that not only protects but in its own self interest is tracking exactly what is going on so downturns can be prevented. Do you think for one minute that if big insurance companies had to take the losses we have been seeing recently, they would not have been extremely vigilant in monitoring the financial market? After all, if a business [until now] fails to do what it promises, it does not make a profit and eventually fails. We The People have the power in our own hands. All we need to do is verify that the investments we make are protected by insurance of some kind. If enough of us do just that, the companies that cannot insure its operations will falter and fail and the companies that do protect their investors will flourish and increase.

So insure investments and homes up to a limit to protect the little guys who need protection.

Another related idea is to give stockholders one vote and one vote only regardless of the number of share they own. Then the little guy would have a greater say in how much money the CEO and the Board of Directors are putting into their own pockets due to the huge number of share they own. Perhaps simply not letting them vote as long as they accept payment for their services. See: http://www.bized.co.uk/learn/economics/markets/stockexchange/board.htm