The failed CEO’s of Citi, Countrywide, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch all walked away from sinking ships with tens and hundreds of dollars. It was all built upon bad business that eventually humbled or completely ruined their respective companies. The US taxpayers have been forced to cover their billions in corporate losses but besides a few embarrassing sessions in front of Congress, they’re all just fine. As Nouriel Roubini has said, it’s a system of “privatized profits and socialized losses.” None of those former CEOs feel an ounce of pain for the economic ruin that is taking down the US economy and eventually the world economy. They are sitting on a gold mine that never should have happened. Even without the gamble, they all could have lived a comfortable retirement but now they are living beyond our wildest dreams.

When is Congress going to step in and re-visit this situation? Forget about blowing hot air for the TV, legal action is necessary. Why should they be able to walk away so easily and pain free? Don’t even give me the old “they had a contract” nonsense because lots of contracts exist and plenty of them are revisited in court. The extraordinary acts of nationalizations, bailouts, debt purchases, etc have put us into new ground. Failing to take action will be a failure on behalf of the American public. Surely Congress will bring some accountability to this once in a lifetime event, no? Much like 9/11 when nobody was ever held responsible, I get the feeling we’re looking at the same here. What does this say about us as a country that we so easily dismiss such obvious failures?