Good one, cashflow. I’d suggest really focusing on the part where the executives and others responsible for the credit bubble have their personal assets seized. I was unable to get all of that in mine due to lack of space (they recommend keeping it to one page).
Here is mine:
Dear Mr. President [or Senator or Representative]:
Under no circumstances should taxpayers be forced — totally against their will — to bail out Wall Street.
If the Federal Reserve and Treasury think loading the taxpayers with trillions of dollars in debt is the only way to deal with our current situation ($700 billion is just a drop in the bucket, and the real cost will be at least $2-5 TRILLION), they need to show us ALL the details which lead them to their conclusion. They should not be able to keep this information opaque if taxpayers are going to pay for it.
If the government wants **OUR** money, they should have to show us **exactly** what would happen if we refused to bail out Wall Street. If they are unable to detail the problems and consequences of letting Wall Street fail, then they don’t have enough information to commit taxpayers’ money to this bailout.
Instead of investigating short sellers who had nothing to do with this mess (they were the ones warning you years ago), why aren’t we hearing about investigations of Wall Street executives, regulators, ratings agencies, hedge fund managers, insurance companies, and most of all…Alan Greenspan, whose policies of cancerous credit growth and ever-higher inflation led us to the disaster we are in today.
All that being said, we do need Treasury to backstop the following:
-FDIC (this should include money market funds, as is currently being discussed)
-SIPC (to cover brokerage accounts)
-PBGC (many pension funds will go bankrupt, and the seniors/future retirees should not have to suffer for Wall Street’s mess)
-A fund should be set up so insurance companies can continue to pay regular property and casualty claims. This fund should be isolated from the financial swaps business.
-Create money that is funneled directly to workers via infrastructure improvement programs and R&D grants in the energy and healthcare fields (only to public universities and non-profit organizations).
This is a defining moment in Washington D.C.. I sincerely hope you will back your constituents instead of pillaging what little they have to pay off Wall Street. Your thoughtful consideration is appreciated.
