Should the conditions for corporate bail outs be jail time for the responsible CEOs?

	Should the conditions for corporate bail outs be jail time for the responsible CEOs? I'm thinking 1 year per million taxpayer dollars. What's your rate or alternate punishment? Gross Negligence would be illegal. Asked By: Phoenix Quill - 9/19/2008

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This would be an excellent idea! Already many CEO's are either committing fraud, or are guilty of gross negligence. Luckily, ever since ENRON there are stiffer laws and penalties concerning what CEO's and top management can get away with. Last month's issue of The Economist Magazine noted that, while executives in China worked for the real benefit of the company (getting company shares in return), American executives often scammed the system: "Clever consultants, whose immediate incentive is to please managers rather than shareolders, have devised ingenious compensation schemes allowing bosses to reap handsome rewards even if they foul things up." These guys know what they are doing. In the case of all the recent housing loans gone bad, they were simply playing the odds, figuring they couldn't lose. Well, their greed is making losers of all of us, and we should make them pay for it. I once worked for an insurance company. The manager of our very large branch office was the typical arrogant jerk who thought he was God's gift to the world. He directed the sales staff to issue as many insurance policies as possible, ignoring the risk vulnerability, figuring it would rapidly escalate the revenue figures for the office, and get him transferred to Headquarters, where he was trying to get the Vice President's job. However, claims started pouring into the office far sooner than he expected. He figured it would all go sour, but that he'd already have been transferred and promoted by that time. He lost, the company lost. It's jerks like this that should be criminally prosecuted. Answered By: pachl@sbcglobal.net - 9/19/2008

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If you are talking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman and AIG, we (as taxpayers bailing them out) should at the very least seize their personal assets. Jail time is useless if they and their families get to keep the money that, let's face it (at least in the case of the FM's), they pretty much stole. And not just the CEO's. They are often oblivious. You really need to go fully down the chain. Every single dollar of every bonus earned for the past 5 years needs to be returned, and every dollar of compensation received above $250,000 (since that's the "rich" threshhold per Obama) for the past 5 years needs to be returned. They were all part of the failure and need to share in paying the price BEFORE any of US share in the costs. I'd rather see 100,000 greedy SOB's lose their homes and have to move to a prefab home in Kansas or Kentucky, which isn't the end of the world and still gives them a chance to start over, than have all of US pay the bill while they go on and enjoy their lives on luxury yachts, at exclusive country clubs, living in gated million-dollar communities, and running off to first class Caribbean vacation spots. While the rest of us are having to make choices and even sell things off in order to remain fiscally responsible, it's time for the people involved in these businesses to pay their fair share and get a little piece of the tough times that THEY CREATED. AND I think this would go a LONG way to making sure this doesn't happen in the future. If people who work for a company realize that their income can be seized for up to 5 years going BACK if a public company fails, then you can be d**n sure they are going to be super strict when it comes to financial management, and every big bonus is going to be thought about very carefully. But I guarantee you, neither Obama, McCain, the President, nor Congress would make that happen. They will once again make US pay for it while their rich cronies get away with it as usual. Answered By: MissDeviance - 9/20/2008

No they didn't do anything illegal. What you can do is make requirements for bailouts rather then just hand out money. Answered By: john c - 9/19/2008

It depends on what is found out after an investigation, assuming there is one. If any impropriety is found (ahem!) then those responsible should be prosecuted. Answered By: Ciao . - 9/19/2008

I think that would be fair and also a reasonable figure. It would be a fair punishment. It is a shame that life is neither fair nor just, it's just life. Greed and corruption should be severely punished anyway, but again that would also cost taxpayers money. I believe that any bail-out should come with conditions attached to help insure against future similar disasters. If those conditions can not be met then perhaps nationalisation of the company would be a temporary option worth considering until restructuring could be undertaken. The problem with that idea is that if the government took control, it would inevitably only make things even worse through bureaucracy and red tape, and since they can't seem to organise anything else properly, I wouldn't have any hope of that option working either. Actually, the government is directly responsible for most of the current troubles in the first place. Many of the safeguards that were put in place after the collapse of the stock market in the 1930's have been gradually diminished, especially over the last 20 years or so. A structure is only as strong as the foundation it is built upon and the materials the structure is made from. If you build on a poor foundation the structure will eventually collapse even if it is made with the best materials. Likewise, a strong foundation will not be able to compensate for weak or inferior construction materials or workmanship. While I am against government intervention of nearly any kind, there are some basic laws and regulations which are required in order to maintain a society, and help insure against realistic and avoidable problems and some of the deregulation of the stock market which began in th 1980's has lead to this problem we are facing today. This was done for some valid reasoning with the belief that private industry should be allowed to be self-regulating, and I totally agree with that principle ideology, but when you have a financial structure based on greed and speculation, and able to gamble with other peoples money and investments, or even gamble with no money at all, then you are asking for trouble. I was taught by my father many years ago, that it is OK to gamble as long as the money that you went in with was an amount that you were willing and could afford to lose. This was a very valuable lesson, and while I am not a hard core gambler, I still buy four lottery tickets each week because that is what I have budgeted for and can afford to lose while there is an occasional small winner, I know that if I keep running the same numbers every week that I will eventually win the jackpot, providing that I live to be over 600,000 years old or so. What I can not do is go up to the counter and say "I would like two tickets with these numbers and I will pay you for the tickets if I win something." I also could not go to a friend and ask them for the money to buy those tickets with the same conditions applied.This is basically what the speculators have been doing by selling stocks that they don't actually own, or using other investors money to do their gambling! Sometimes I wish I didn't have any morals, I would at least be able to afford heating my house to a comfortable temperature! I really wonder how some of these people can sleep at night knowing full well what they are doing to other peoples lives? Sorry about the rant, but I just say it as I see it. Edit: john c does have a valid point. Money is not going to be the cure, it will only be a temporary remedy. If you don't get to the source of the illness, you can only temporarily relieve some of its symptoms. The illness will still be there ready to flare up again in the future. Answered By: Easy Rider - 9/19/2008

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