Vote NO on TARP/EES Act of 2008

Yet Another Open Letter to Congress

September 28, 2008

Dear Senator or Representative:

I implore you on behalf of America and our children and grandchildren: Vote NO on the modified Troubled Asset Relief Plan.

This is bad legislation, fraught with long-term unanticipated, unintended consequences which, in the comfort of hindsight some years from now, will be glaringly obvious.

You deliberately are being misinformed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the President in regard to the extreme urgency of the adoption of this plan.

Such urgency is not required. If, in fact, we were “only days away” from a global financial catastrophe, as was represented by the Administration on Thursday, September 18, 2008, then financial markets would have seized without regard to your deliberations.

Financial markets are functioning, as evidenced last week by Goldman Sachs raising $10 billion in fresh private capital, by Morgan Stanley finalizing negotiations for $8.5 billion in new capital, by JP Morgan Chase acquiring the assets and deposits of Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in our history (and paying the FDIC $1.9 billion in the process – NO cost to taxpayers), and by Wachovia Corporation entering into negotiations to merge with a healthier institution.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the emergency acquisition of AIG Insurance, the merger of Bank of America and Merrill lynch, the ban of short-selling of financial institution stocks and the calming of money markets and money market funds with an insurance plan and an emergency lending facility have stabilized the financial markets sufficiently to allow additional time to consider a better solution to our credit crisis.

As such, I urge you, again, to vote NO on this modified Troubled Asset Relief Plan, and start anew with bilateral negotiations to produce a reasoned plan which will better protect the nation, its citizens, its taxpayers, its creditors (both foreign and domestic), its financial institutions and its economy.

The risk of approving ill-advised legislation now, with long-term and unintended consequences, is far greater than the perceived risk of impending financial catastrophe which, by virtue of the positive developments in private capital markets last week, is a much more remote likelihood.

Better legislation should be drafted and approved in the coming months, preferably after the beginning of a new Administration and session of Congress in January 2009. If other financial institutions require government assistance before next year, solutions may be developed on a case-by-case basis without resorting to a sweeping plan which Congress has had inadequate time to consider.

Please vote NO on the Troubled Asset Relief Plan. Financial markets are NOT days away from catastrophe. Vote NO and urge your colleagues to vote NO, in favor of a new and better plan next year.