From: Carol Streamer [faststream@livewirenet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 3:46 PM
To: Jonathan G Katz
Subject: New Confirmation and Point of Sale Disclosure Requirements
To:  Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary
        Securities and Exchange Commission
        450 Fifth Street, NW
        Washington, DC  20549-0609
Dear Sec. Katz,
    I realize I am not one of your major investors.  I never had very
much income considering the most jobs I was ever offered paid the
minimum wage.  When one earns $1.25/hr and $2.25/hr and after 40 hours
of slavery on a job without a future goes home to pay $165/month rent,
unreal utility bills for telephone, water, sewer service and of course,
electricity and gas -- well one did have to invest in food and a rare
trip to a dentist and the doctor.  You see, people at this end of the
scale are fired if they need time off to visit a dentist to have one's
teeth cleaned or a doctor for an ordinary thing like a flu shot, etc.
We didn't have money to invest in private transportation or in private
housing.  Who would loan money to someone whose job might only last a
few days or weeks.  Those are the realities of many these days.
    So, when a friend suggested that it would be wise to invest one's
Social Security money in stock and get a better return.  No that didn't
sound very practical but she did have a point.  It's one thing to advocate
doing such a thing but what if you took the money that was stored in the
bank at .078% interest and put it in a more secure investment that would
pay a higher return.  Obviously, something is the matter when banks are
paying under 1% interest.
    I had carefully saved all my birthday money a long time ago in a
Business Bank.  I was given 3% interest.  At that time I had just finished
reading The Witch of Wall Street about Hetty Green Robinson who at the
beginning of the 20th Century merely wanted a checking account in her
own name.  You see the bankers at that time felt women were very poor
investment decision makers because of their lack of knowledge about
arithmetic.  This poor banker I encountered opened his mouth and said
to me, "No, there is no mistake that is the interest payment you were
to receive this quarter!"
    The problem was that I had never opened my mouth to ask him why is
there were fewer banking holidays in a quarter than there had been the
year before and no money had been added or removed, why was the interest
paid shown on my statement 50 cents less than the year before.
    I carefully documented my bank investment for 20 years and the
amounts I had been paid in interest and mailed it off to the Chairman
of the Federal Reserve.  Very soon later interest rates jumped from 3%
to 5% to 6% to even 22% for long term bank CD investments.  I always
figured it was a backlash for all the men and women (now deceased who
had been cheated out of their rightful interest earnings over 75  years.
I always figured that banks had been stealing quite legally from investors
who closed accounts and left behind interest payments.
    Apparently, State Treasurers in several States figured the same thing
out and decided that leftover money belonged to the State Treasury.  The
same being true about safety deposit boxes that remained untouched for
years.
    I could be wrong but I think a backlash has occurred in the vault of
the Securities that women like Hetty Green Robinson  was concerned about.
The more educated women become, the less likely they are to invest in
choices made by male accountants, male law clerks, and male investment
house clerks.  These clerks often seem to be about 23 to 27 years old
and with limited investment experience to use to provide advice to
elderly investors who inherited a little spare cash and wanted a fair
share return on their investment in America.
    The United States of America is a major Corporation.  It was set
up as such in Colonial Times by Bankers in Boston, Philadelphia, New
York City, etc.  We would all be shareholders with a stockholder vote
in each Election Period for local, state and federal candidates.  So
in reading shareholder reports I learned that my only options were to
raise the salaries of the Board of Directors and increase their perks,
and agree to reappoint them to their high salary jobs.
    In some cases, I noticed that not woman's name appeared on any Board
slate ever presented.  I also noted that women were not in authority
positions.  When I went to stores to purchase the products made by these
corporations I discovered they really didn't suit the needs of women.
Clothes didn't fit.  Health care products didn't work.  Grocery items
kept going up in price but lacked nourishment or taste.
    Over the years the jobs held by women also vanished little by little.
That is until employers discovered that male candidates for employment
wanted too much pay and had become very demanding.
    All over America shareholders are dissatisfied and with good reason.
The young punks who frequently get the big salaries don't want to answer
the phone, or talk to customers or deal with problems.  They often have
trouble focusing on the big picture because its beyond the thinking of
one or a small group of minds.
    In the 21st Century it is important to live up to the ideals of the
Colonial Spirit which encouraged group thinking on a very large scale.
Corporations of the past held Major Town Meetings to resolve issues that
everyone needed a say in. Surely, some of those meetings were very narrow
minded but Americans have always been free to move to a new Corporation
if the one you live within no longer agrees with your current or future
needs.  The costs and expenses were not hidden from the investors.  Wrong
doing and shady transactions were dealt with sometimes with a duel or a
jury and tar and feathers.
    Something is very wrong when nobody is making money and nobody has a
job, and nobody can afford health care, and nobody gets any return on their
investments.  Investor Focus Groups sound very promising.  Let's hope they
come to be and prosperity creeps back in.