Entitlement.

Your entire post reeks of entitlement. You are implying that "I" chose the "correct" major, and the "correct" job ergo give me what "I" deserve. I deserve the big monies because I chose finance and not education. I deserve the big monies because I chose to work in an industry that takes other peoples' money. In reference to the letter writer, because the letter writer wasn't a member of the CDS division the letter writer is still entitled to their bonus? In spite of the fact that the company he worked for failed... he deserves his inflated compensation? Did he speak out against the CDS division when it was making money? When he accepted employment, did he join A.I.G. EXCEPT THE CDS division, cuz they're jerks? No, he joined A.I.G. and does not seem to exhibit any regret or remorse that A.I.G. did what it did. If it was any other financial product, the letter writer would want A.I.G. to have handled it the same, so I see no reason why this exec should be spared scorn. You sat at A.I.G. and said nothing while the CDS happened? Then you get to sit at a failed A.I.G. and hear about the consequences.

You will never make me ditch any sort of outrage by claiming the plutocrats deserve a break because they chose their industry.

You claim that people knew what sort of industry they were getting into when they chose their major??? Does your limited worldview comprehend what you just said? By your logic, everyone should just chose to be doctors or CPAs, because obviously those are the jobs with the biggest salaries, so that is all people should chose to be. Forget that the world needs all kinds of specialized roles filled. Forget the fact that someone needs to harvest the Doctor's food, or teach the doctor's children, or manage the doctor's finances, or sell them their expensive cars...

Why are so many people quick to discount the concept of the invisible hand of capitalism? Isn't this round of naming and shaming part of that hand slapping? Sure, it isn't the company failures that lots of Americans are calling for, but isn't this round of scorn and repudiation part of the corrective action?

Maybe we should heal the scorn and repudiation on the people responsible, make their names so well known they carry a toxic stench with them, whichever company they become attached to. The A.I.G. chairman, Liddy, should be stenched as so just for the reports of what he did for Allstate. Sure, let's boost shareholder returns at the expense of serving our customers. And he was at the tiller at A.I.G.? TAR AND FEATHER HIM. Keep his toxic business sense away from any other business, no really! Do this for all these money managers too, don't let them work in finance again! Wouldn't that reflect the corrective action of the market? Wouldn't that better reflect a system correcting itself after a bad imbalance?

If the economic ideas of all these traders allowed them to be complicit with all the latest economic tomfoolery, why are they allowed near the finance sector? Case-in-point: (and a completely anecdotal argument) There was a concentration of mortgage banks and companies in Orange County, California. An article published last year noted that many executives and employees of these failed mortgage banks used to work for the scandal ridden Savings & Loans banks, back in the 80s. How different from the S&L scandals is the current credit crisis? Does it involve the same principles? If I was in finance, that is the question I'd be trying to solve.

Well, that, and what is it about really big business that attracts so much crime and graft? The numbers? Maybe I wasn't paying so much attention when I was younger, but I can recall MCI-WorldCom, Adelphia, ComCast, Charter communications, ENRON and California, Oil Windfalls from '07-'08, no-bid government contracts, and the Mortgage/ Credit crisis. It seems like a litany of missteps, swindles, money-grabs, and hubris displays. Did the Bush years inspire bad business people to rise up and take over? If the American public won't react to a "business" man in the white house, why would they pay attention to getting ripped-off in the private sector?