Restoring a government of, by, and for the people

When I was president of the Pacific Stock and Option Exchange in the late 1990’s, I saw firsthand how Congressional representatives, senators and regulators were influenced by bankers, stock and futures markets, trading firms and funds and the many businesses that make money from the capital markets.  

This is not done by bribery or any criminal activity; it is by lobbying and political contributions.  And it is usually done in the name of “free markets” and “keeping the U.S.’s capital markets” the best in the world.  While it may be true that the U.S. capital markets are the “best” it is also true that the profit incentive is primary and the effective regulation is essential to make the markets fair to individuals who ultimately trade the securities in these markets. 

{mosads}The biggest detriment to the U.S. markets being fair to the buyers and sellers of securities is lobbying and campaign contributions that help the businesses that profit from the markets essentially write the laws and rules that for the lawmakers and regulators who ultimately are responsible for balancing the needs of market professionals to make a profit and individuals who depend on the markets to have a fair price at a reasonable cost when conducting their transactions.  This means that the “votes” of the lobbyists and political contributors count 100 or even 1000 times more than the vote of an individual.

Unfortunately, due to Supreme Court rulings such as the 2010 Citizens United decision, which made it legal for corporations and special interest groups to make political donations without restrictions in return for legislative favors, these big banks, professional funds, securities exchanges, and other market insiders and their lobbyists have immense sway over Washington and thus consistently get rules and regulations that give them an insiders edge and cost the investor money. 

This unfair advantage of the market professional that I witnessed firsthand is why I’ve teamed up with Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to stamp big money out of politics and put an end to quid pro quo, pay to play culture in Washington. Ben’s StampStampede.org is a grassroots campaign of tens of thousands of people legally stamping anti-corruption messages like “Not to be used for buying elections” on dollar bills to give everybody a way to do something tangible against the menace of big money’s intrusion into our political system.   This people’s movement to get money out of politics is the only way we can save our Democracy. 

As presidential candidate and senator, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently put it: “As the cost of campaigns and the necessity for a billionaire backer goes up, over time it’s inevitable that the policy end is affected, right?” 

Graham points out what we have all seen as money has grown to dominate all political campaigns and elections.  

This shortsightedness makes me worried about the future of our current democratic republic and the world that my grandchildren will work and live in.  Wall Street needs a regulator, and it’s not the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which I have personally “lobbied” about loosening financial regulations when I worked in the markets.  We depend on our legislators to pass laws defining regulators who look out for the individual investor first and not the financial firms where they will get their next job   If Congress doesn’t do its job, than the lack of regulation and oversight will lead to another crash and recession like we have seen since 2008 and a market that rewards the insiders first and leaves us, the public, to depend on luck for our pensions and college for our kids. 

If there exists a defensive line opposite Wall Street and its penchant for making reckless financial deals, you won’t see any politicians on it.  This is why “We the People” must rise up and make politicians get in line. 

Big banks and other players in the capital markets think their money makes them untouchable, but we’re building a massive, on-going people-powered protest to prove that they’re wrong.  With the enormous amount of outrage and people-power around this issue, the days of special interests trumping the welfare of the general public in Congress are numbered.

Langley is the former president of the Pacific Stock Exchange (1996 to 1999), and is currently on the board of Hull Investments, a Chicago based quantitative trading firm.