The following is a letter I recently sent to my representative and senators:
An Open Letter to the Federal Government of The United States of America
Dear Sirs and Madams:
As a citizen who is feeling unrepresented by your leadership and governance, I am making a public plea to get your attention because you seem to have your own agenda that is not in the best interests of citizens who voted you into office and pay for the operation of this country. There are a few elected officials who actually do a great job in working for the welfare of their citizen constituencies, my representative included, but unfortunately, they are a very small minority as evidenced by Congress’ current approval rating.
I will not mince words here. I need the elected officials throughout this country to stop being “politicians” and start being public servants. Congress, your phone lines and email systems were flooded with citizens opposing the $700 billion bailout of the financial markets. The Senate totally ignored our voices. The House of Representatives initially shot it down but all it took was $150 billion in pork spending on things like subsidies for wooden arrow manufacturers and they were sold. I know they were under pressure from the supposed threat that was described by Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke when they came up with this scheme but all common sense and history was abandoned in this situation. I read HR 1424 and there was no plan in place to address and resolve the problems. Everyone wants to tiptoe around the causes of our country’s recession: the credit derivatives/default swaps market; the lack of manufacturing power/diversity/competitiveness; and our economy being based on credit instead of resources.
Common sense and history were readily available regarding the credit derivatives/default swaps market dating back to over 100 years ago. At that time, “bucket shops,” brokerages that allowed illegal side-bets to be made on stock market fluctuations without having to buy actual stocks. This was the cause of the stock market crash of 1907 which was exacerbated by the Russo-Japanese war of 1905 and the rebuilding of San Francisco draining money supplies (please draw the parallel of the Iraq invasion and ongoing Afghan war). As a result, many states outlawed these operations and the transactions became a violation of US federal securities and commodities futures laws. Unfortunately, greed grabbed hold of President Clinton and Congress in 2000 when they passed the Commodities Futures Modernization Act unanimously which revived the bucket shops and the credit derivatives/default swaps market. Now, you have a nightmare situation that the whole world bought into to the tune of hundreds of trillions of dollars, maybe even quadrillions. There probably isn’t enough money in the whole world to pay off these side bets. Furthermore, NO ONE understands the concept of credit default swaps and by continuing to allow them to be treated as legitimate financial instruments you ensure the complete collapse of the global market economy as it now exists. Easy solution: Put a global ban on the credit derivatives/default swaps. No matter how you market it, it’s still gambling. A clearinghouse for these instruments is not needed other than to attempt to ascertain the value of the assets tangled in a confusing bundle.
Our manufacturing industries are in bad shape because they made bad decisions. When you choose profits over people and ship jobs overseas for cheaper labor because the federal government just gave you a way out of your commitment to supporting American prosperity via NAFTA, you deserve to fade out of existence. When you choose not to focus on developing and mass-producing cost/fuel efficient/hybrid vehicles even though foreign competitors have cornered the market in your own country, you deserve to fade out of existence. The double-edged sword is that in order for America to have any standing in the global market economy, it has to manufacture things other countries need and want. Regrettably, automotive manufacturing is the mainstay of our manufacturing strength. Why hasn’t our country and all of its rich investors focused on developing other manufacturing industries? It is an incredibly hard decision to choose between letting one of the last standing bastions of our economic strength collapse because they refused to develop a sustainable business model or to give them however many billions of dollars in the hopes that the industry turns around and 3 million jobs are not lost. However, just as with the previously discussed $850 billion bailout, there is no viable plan or strategy. All these bailouts are focusing on is extending more credit. Credit is debt and the people responsible for paying this country’s debt are the everyday working citizens. In case you hadn’t noticed, unemployment rates are exploding with no plan or strategy to replenish the jobs that are being lost. Jobs allow people to be able to pay off debt or have credit extended to them. Why don’t the federal government and corporations understand this very important piece to the puzzle? You don’t understand because the citizens in this country are only viewed by you as taxpayers and consumers.
How will we ever pay off the perpetually increasing national debt with the current state of our monetary system? Here’s another lesson in common sense and history. The American Revolution was largely fought for this country to have the power to print its own money and issue credit. Yet, in 1913, Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act which removed this country’s power to determine its own economic destiny. To make matters worse, President Nixon unhooked the dollar from the gold standard in 1971 which left the future value of our currency in limbo. Here we are over $10 trillion in debt and the only plan we have to pay it off is to continue accumulating more debt by borrowing from other countries and central banking entities. You can choose to make this a more complicated situation by throwing in various contributing factors but it boils down to common sense. Debt + debt = debt! I know that it will take a monumental amount of brain power to figure out a new monetary system but in the meantime, the citizens deserve to have a good measure of control on how their hard-earned debt is spent! Having our voices ignored when opposing the bailout is unacceptable. The American citizens’ tax dollars should have a much bigger voice than the lobbyists of corporations and special interest groups. You are abusing the powers the people vested in you by virtue of the Constitution and The Federal Reserve System has completely failed in every area of its mission and duties as stated on its own website:
- conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates
- supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
- maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
- providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation's payments system
Quit giving our money away to banking institutions for them to lend back to us at a substantial profit! Suspend the Troubled Assets Relief Program now! It is no longer being used for its original intent nor will it stabilize the financial markets. Creating and maintaining good-paying jobs that produce products people want to buy stimulates the economy. That’s both history and common sense! Repeal the Patriot Act. People don’t like being illegally spied on or detained indefinitely without charges being pressed and no right to legal counsel while being subject to “enhanced interrogation.” Make sure we get out of Iraq. It is a fact that they did not pose any threat to us nor were they involved in the 9/11 attacks. I know it is unfathomable that you would apologize for destabilizing their country but I can’t stand to see another Iraqi civilian or American soldier lose their life. There are plenty of murderous dictators that we help prop up and arm in exchange for “national interest” items, Saddam Hussein included. The only freedom our military is fighting for is the securing of the Iraqi oil fields for Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron who are enjoying historic, windfall profits.
This is but one letter and perspective and I hope it sparks millions more who are fed up with feeling powerless and unhappy about the way they are being governed.
Sincerely,
R. Leon Mathews
American Citizen
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