by Kerry Thomas
May 27, 2008
You scrimp, you save, you try to invest. You try to set a little aside every month, try to make wise investments.
But when savings accounts barely pay 1%, and municipal bonds
paying 3%, where can you get a decent, safe return on your money?
One of our local financial businesses is paying a guaranteed
9% on your money. But you can’t invest
there, by law, unless you have a documented income of at least $200,000 a year,
or a net worth of at least a million dollars.
It’s the same story with a new Iowa-based solar energy
technology company. This company has
the potential to revolutionize the solar energy industry, already bringing the
cost of solar energy down to a level on par with coal fired power plants. It has public stock for sale – but only in
England. U.S. investors are prohibited
by law from investing in this Delaware corporation.
And the irony of this one is that it was U.S.
taxpayer dollars that funded the start-up of this company four years ago.
Going back in history for a second, don’t you wish you could
have invested in Microsoft in 1983?
This solar energy company has similar potential for investors. Only you can’t invest in the company, thanks
to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Under the terms of Rule 144A of the U.S.
Securities Act of 1933, unless you meet the requirements, you cannot invest
in these higher-yield investments.
Big Brother thinks you’re too dumb to do your homework
before you invest. They’d rather force
you to trust them, to trust some anonymous investment broker, to put your faith
in an expert to spend, I mean invest, your money for you. After all, you don’t know that a 9% return
is better than a 3% or a 1% return on your money.
Maybe this rule made sense in 1933. But in an age of instant communication, in a
time when information is available with just a few mouse clicks on your
computer, most people are smart enough to do their homework before they invest.
Under this SEC rule, only people who have already acquired
wealth are eligible to acquire more of it.
Those of us who are still building our fortunes are prohibited, by law,
from investing in these higher-yield investments.
The only way this can be changed is if Congress takes
action, to allow the rest of us to take advantage of these opportunities when
they come along. Every Congressman says
they’re “fighting” for the little guy.
The problem is, most Members of Congress don’t qualify as “the little
guy” any more. They aren’t affected by
this law.
This is one situation where Congress can prove how much they
really care for “the little guy.”
Congress needs to take another look at this law, and change it, to allow
the rest of us access to the same investment opportunities available to wealthy
Americans.
I know it’s cliché, but this really is a case where the rich
get richer, the poor stay in the poorhouse.
By law.
Use these links to find and contact your Congressman and Senators
and tell them that they need to amend Rule 144A of the U.S. Securities Act of
1933 and allow you the freedom to take advantage of the same investment
opportunities as more wealthy Americans.