Warren Buffett: "poetic justice" for banks
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0631767220080207

Spot on. Except I don't think the consequences of poor stock performance are quite enough; the lack of consequences on the individual level, for the most part, of the execs and decision-makers largely responsible for the current financial crisis creates very little incentive for banks to create checks and balances for when the next financial fad/bubble comes along. Then there's the Fed's bailout of the corporations themselves... I want to see a bank actually go into financial insolvency. Full chapter 7 shit - none of this chapter 11 restructuring, and not just a small company like etrade - someone with a $10B+ market cap.

More ranting to follow, with plenty of links to posts/articles highlighting exactly the kind of structural dysfunction which not just allows this behavior en masse but actually reinforces and encourages it. The financial system is broken, and it's much bigger than the minuscule $7B problem at SocGen.

(ps - apparently "drinking the kool-aid", or some variation thereof, is the new hot phrase everyone's using. I've seen it in at least a half-dozen news stories/posts in the last couple days...)
- posted by vcmc @  2/08/2008 12:56:00 PM