[quote=gandalf]I agree. The banks are principally responsible for a ‘banking meltdown’. The corporate directors and managing principals are responsible. It’s the letter of the law. And yet, for all intensive purposes, most of the people managing the financial services corporations at the epicenter of this disaster are going to emerge unscathed. They are not going to be held responsible for what happened, not in any practical sense. And there is something fundamentally wrong with that.[/quote]

True, unfortunately. There will be a few high-profile successful prosecutions and host of small-time folks will get nailed as well. But in the larger scheme of things, the majority of malcontents will walk away unscathed.

[quote=gandalf]
I could care less about ‘Deadbeat Joe’. He’s a fraction of the problem. I want to know when Wall Street is going to be held responsible for its reckless misconduct. That’s where the money went, and that’s what I want to know.[/quote]

While individual Deadbeat Joes are a tiny fraction of the problem, Deadbeat Joes as a group are a big part of the problem. They’re the source of a huge part of the SFR losses, after all. So, I care about both – the banking malcontents and the Deadbeat Joes. But of one thing I’m sure: neither will truly suffer much. It’s the nature of the game.