Occupy Wall Street: Will it Get the Attention of Elected Officials?

About six months ago, I wrote letters to County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, Assemblyman Brian Jones and Rep. Darrell Issa urging them to lobby the US Congress to enact and enforce meaningful regulations to curb the excesses of Wall Street that lead to the financial crisis due to the housing bubble. Allegedly representing us—a significant number—they should wield more clout than me as an individual.

I did not receive even a perfunctory response acknowledging receipt of same.

Will Occupy Wall Street get the attention of our elected representatives? 

To the editor: 

Occupy Wall Street protesters have selected the right target. The investment bankers and stockbrokers created the opaque financial instruments, collateralized debt obligation bonds (toxic mortgages) and then credit-default swaps to hedge or bet against these CDOs. The Wall Street stock market was thus converted into a casino. Unlike a casino, the gamblers did not lose their bets when they were not covered because AIG bailed them out with taxpayer monies. 

On April 29, 2011, a Wall Street Journal Market Alert reported that the Treasury Department plans to exclude foreign-exchange instruments from key portions of new derivative rules, as being devised under last year's Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law. Treasury officials said the instruments, known as foreign-exchange swaps and forwards, shouldn't fall under the same rules as other derivatives because doing so could expose the market to greater risk and instability.  

These derivatives are bets. In other words, unregulated credit-default swaps betting that Greece will default are still being sold on stock markets and no one knows the number or amounts. If Greece should default, will there be an AIG to cover any and all bets and reward the hedge fund operators no matter how reckless their behavior, just as the US taxpayers footed the bill on the AIG fiasco?

Joan Wayman (Mrs. Richard E.)

This letter was originally emailed to the San Diego Union-Tribune.