Countertop’s Solution To Wall Streets Problem
Its simple. Present to each and every Wall Street firm 2 options
1) Play in the system, or
2) Don’t play in the system
For those firms that choose out of the system, there is no additional oversight or penalties . . . provided they remain solvent. However, if they fail as a business concern, then their Senior executives will be personally liable for any outstanding losses incurred by the failure (with no option for bankruptcy) and will face mandatory, lengthy jail sentences.
Those that play in the system will be eligible for a government bailout. Provided, that they will first be subject to a massive audit and all employees AND executives of said firm who earned $1 million or more in any year over the last 10 years will be automatically jointly and severally personally liable for payment of the complete amount of the bailout up to the total compensation (including stock options, benefits, bonuses, etc) they amassed over the prior ten years. All who are unable to repay the money they falsely earned (falsely, because if they were doing their jobs they would have seen what I saw in 1999, that the entire run up was built on a house of cards) will face mandatory, decade long (or more) prison terms.
Thats only fair, isn’t it?? Is there any compelling reason not to bankrupt the whole lot of them??
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No, there isn’t. However, such creatures are more creative at finding ways to evade punishment than you are at finding ways to punish them. Case in point:
However, if they fail as a business concern, then their Senior executives will be personally liable for any outstanding losses incurred by the failure (with no option for bankruptcy) and will face mandatory, lengthy jail sentences.
I see several problems with this approach right away.
1) senior executives WILL find ways to protect their personal assets from seizure. In which case they won’t care about keeping their company solvent any more than they do now. Which is to say, the good ones will care, and the greedy self-centered ones won’t. Two or three years at Club Fed, and fifty mil waiting when you get out? Sounds like a bargain to me.
2) What do you do about a company that fails despite the CEO’s best efforts to keep it running? No judge, no jury will jail a CEO for doing his honest best to keep a company going. Dishonest CEOs will use that as an escape tactic.
3) if a senior executive is guilty of wrongdoing, he’ll leave the endangered company before it fails. The company will then be unable to find replacements because all the candidates will be scared of getting jailed and left paupers because of debts they didn’t incur.
4) every time a company replaces its CEO, there will be rumors that it’s because the company is financially unsound — causing the company’s stock to drop, and quite possibly making it unsound even if it wasn’t to start with.
Comment by wolfwalker — September 25, 2008 @ 7:51 am
Jail sentences work for me - and no Club-Fed tennis-jail. Send in the Mafia (or some Saudis or Russians) to collect on the debt.
Comment by DirtCrashr — September 29, 2008 @ 7:51 pm