Monday, September 14, 2009

Justice, morality and stuff

I don't know if Judge Rakoff is right, but refusing to allow a settlement for $33 million of a claim that payment of $3.6 billion in bonuses was improperly disclosed just feels good, doesn't it?

But maybe this is exactly what Edward Greenspan is complaining about. I'm not sure that the claim that we treat allegedly criminal business people no better than "heroin dealers, mafiosi or child abusers" isn't a bit hyperbolic, though.

What do "the most elementary notions of justice and morality" dictate here? Should the penalty for theft vary with the amount of the theft? The sophistication of the act or the number of advising counsel? The unwillingness of the victimized to protect themselves, e.g. by not buying stock in a bank whose operations they can't collectively control (or maybe comprehend)?

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