Should criminal charges be filed against those responsible for the recession? Options

[hi-C]

It's like the proverbial tree in the forest: if some bad financial decisions are made but there are no regulations to govern them, does that make the resulting financial collapse criminally prosecutable?

And... go.

[mipadi]

With what do you propose we charge the financial services executives? They made a lot of bad decisions, yes, but we can't really legislate bad decision-making. Everyone makes bad decisions. We can argue that the the executives should have realized they were making bad decisions that could lead to financial collapse, but I still don't see any obvious negligence in their decisions. Greed, yes; stupidity, yes; out-and-out negligence, no. Secondly, while I believe the corporations are mostly to blame, let's not forget that part of the housing bubble was caused by individuals who took out loans that they could certainly not afford, thus making poor financial decisions as well. But again, I think it would be wrong to charge them with anything, for obvious reasons.

The bigger issue here is accountability, something that the executives still haven't really grasped. Ultimately, as the chiefs of their respective corporations, they are responsible for the success or ruin of the company; and when one is responsible for losing billions of dollars, one should think twice before accepting a large bonus or other perks, since those bonuses are rewards for success, not failure. It seems, however, that the executives don't want to be held accountable for their poor decision-making.