A local resident reads a copy of The Occupy Wall Street Journal, a four-page broadsheet newspaper printed by the protest movement called Occupy Wall Street, near Zuotti Park in New York, Oct. 1, 2011. The group's idea behind the newspaper, which was funded through Kickstarter, is to explain what the protest is about and profile different people who have joined and why the joined. (Robert Stolarik/The New York Times)

Demonstrating for what?

EDITOR: The older I get, the more I think I must be living in a parallel universe. Now we have protesters on Wall Street. They don't like what the big banks have done. But no one can give me some sort of idea of what they want to change or how they plan to go about doing so. Yet the movement seems to be growing.

I could understand such a movement if the protesters were to say things such as:

• Reinstate the Glass-Steagal Act.

• CEOs of major corporations should receive a minimal annual salary with the right to exercise substantial stock options in five years.

• Errors and omissions in annual reports should be at least a partial responsibility of the board of directors.

• Derivatives should be put under tighter federal controls, and if they are shown on an annual report as a profit, they should be delineated as a derivative.

• A bank's "shadow inventory" should be shown as such on its annual report as a non-performing asset.

Instead of just saying we don't like something, how about suggesting ways to improve things. Please remember, at least for the last 70 years, the business system we've had has worked pretty well. So perhaps it just needs some adjustments.

CARL MERNER

Santa Rosa

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