arrest them, try them, draw and quarter them. IN PUBLIC. In full view of everyone, as a lesson that those who ffuck with society and bankrupt us to the tune of 700,000 lost jobs PER WEEK will suffer grave consequences for their lacksadaisical disregard for responsibility.

Like it or not, these lions put themselves in a position where they became the one entrusted with maintaining the ship of industry. Nobody ASKED for them to be there. Certainly nobody asked that they promote poisonous programs deliberately conceived to muddy the waters. Actually, on the last sentence, this whole affair to me IS deliberate, the elites WANT the US down, so they can impose draconian new laws just when we are begging and starving.

The big whiney argument I heard from the fat wall street porkers yesterday on CNBC is oh dear, this will force all the good managers to look elsewhere for jobs and all of the best people will be lost.

I think if these guys were so great at their jobs we would not all be floating in this smelly pickle barrel of an economy. Our government failed and our banks failed BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE RUNNING THEM. From the president on down, they used their positions to advance their personal life style with disregard to EVERYTHING else. Every CEO and all of the boards should be summarily fired, and rehired ONLY if their resume shows not the position they held, but how they carried out their duties. I also think we should let the banks go belly up and spend the money on creating brand new banks, with brand new managers and brand new boards under this brand new government that will actually regulate them with brand new laws. If they don't like the terms let them stand in the unemployment line with all of us other dumb slobs who they rolled over when they trashed the economy. Maybe it's time to bring back tar and feathering, or we could make them all wear yellow armbands with the letter B (for Banker) on it.

Top executives are not all that specialized. Since most of them are in their 50's and 60's they'll just quit and go to some non banking firm. And since the top 2 or 3 or 4 levels of senior management make more than $500/k now, they'll all leave. That will leave the 3rd or 4th line managers to be promoted way over their experience.

I was going to say that they couldn't be trusted to organize a drink-up at a brewery, but then it occurred to me that they might be put to work sweeping up. But then I realized we would still be rewarding them with work & payment for failure.

That leads me to a more serious suggestion: as Andrew pointed out, under Draco's laws ""any debtor whose status was lower than that of his creditor was forced into slavery."

Perhaps the solution is that we take the money and estates that these people built up in the good times as assets with which to pay for the clean up. Not quite slavery, but if they are so incredibly talented, taking everything they own shouldn't keep them down for long, eh?

Why people think all these high fliers are going to jump ship for better pay....

Exactly where are they going to GO?

Who is desperately seeking a greedy banker in a depression?

Give it two more years and they'll be selling apples on the streets with the rest of us.

Read it and weep: http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/connections_n2/great_depression.html

Awesome logic AdmVinyl. It comes close to cutting through the fog. However, I believe the capitalists least of all want realism, at least the kind that levels the field. The entitled believe in their entitlement in all seasons: Plenty, drought, plague, famine, bull market, full depression.

There is nothing wrong with wealth in of itself. There is something wrong with the enormous chasm between the wealthy and everyone else - espcially when that enormous wealth is derived by sucking value out of the system and impoverishing everyone else. There is nothing wrong with pursuit of wealth or the pursuit of things that are more meaningful as Xanthro put it . But anyone putting in a working day should make a decent wage and be able to cover their basic expenses with a little left over to save if they are prudent. Wage stagnation has prevented that and led to the demand for credit that has gotten us into this crunch - along with the willingness of the greedy to apply usurious rates and deceptive aggreement terms. Again a direct outgrowth of the application of the conservative ideology and worship of the free- markets .

are not using the money for lending. They are using to shore up their own liquidiity. And we know this from the few that have done voluntary disclosure. So that is at least half of the TARP funding that has just vanished. They can say they are not using for for events (that do support jobs and local economies, even if they look bad) or bonuses or whatever but no one really knows.

Bottom line, the competitiveness argument makes no sense in an economy that is falling apart they should accept half a million in compensation gladly. Even if just for show. If they have job mobility then they should move on. Their personal greed is not necessarily an indicator that they will be good stewards of business and will drive to their own self interest anyway. They should welcome an opportunity to prove their immense talent and separate themselves from the pack seen as driven our collective prospects into the ground.

Finally, conservative ideology is built around destroying the governement- in Nordquists immortal and all too vivid words "shrinking it to the size to be drowned in a bathtub" that is the whole point. Income inequality is a natural result and a desired outcome. It is antithetical to the classic American dream of widespread wealth and prosperity and opportunity.