We need to separate two types of leaders that often get conflated when talking about "corporate greed".
There are:
1) CEOs that explicity break the law. Examples include Mozilo of Countrywide who insider traded, or deliberately misinformed investors through investor calls or financial reports. These guys should go to jail AND pay heavy financial penalties.
Then there are
2) CEOs/traders that made legal but unwise all-in bets. This is pretty much much of the leadership from banks in the most recent crash. These leaders should NOT go to jail, as they have not broken any laws. But they and their companies should be held financially liable for any big losses when they inevitably come. Investment banks have been pretty successful at taking their hefty cut of the pie when times are good, but dodging the bullet when bad times inevitably come. JPMorgan (and other banks) have divisions that do investments for pension funds. When times are good, they get their share, but recent losses were completely offloaded onto the city pension funds. Privatization of profits, socialization of losses. Under this scheme, it's actually economically rational for them to make wild bets. They need to feel the pain when those bets don't pan out.
There are: 1) CEOs that explicity break the law. Examples include Mozilo of Countrywide who insider traded, or deliberately misinformed investors through investor calls or financial reports. These guys should go to jail AND pay heavy financial penalties.
Then there are 2) CEOs/traders that made legal but unwise all-in bets. This is pretty much much of the leadership from banks in the most recent crash. These leaders should NOT go to jail, as they have not broken any laws. But they and their companies should be held financially liable for any big losses when they inevitably come. Investment banks have been pretty successful at taking their hefty cut of the pie when times are good, but dodging the bullet when bad times inevitably come. JPMorgan (and other banks) have divisions that do investments for pension funds. When times are good, they get their share, but recent losses were completely offloaded onto the city pension funds. Privatization of profits, socialization of losses. Under this scheme, it's actually economically rational for them to make wild bets. They need to feel the pain when those bets don't pan out.