[jajko]

Good points but AFAIK bank loans from 2008 were paid back with interests, those were definitely not some free money. I would focus on root causes instead of populists shallow statements like that - too few regulations and oversight that allowed creation of securities that should never have existed in first place.

No industry will self-regulate, as you write the lure of short term bonuses for execs is too high and punishment for failures are non existent. I expect current US admin will make this even worse, greed and short term profit seems to be the only focus.

[cletus]

I'm all for root cause analysis. A big part of that is that large companies become extremely risk-tolerant because history has shown there is little to no downside to their actions. If the government always bails you out, what incentive is there to be prudent? You may as well fly close to the Sun and pay out big bonuses now. Insolvency is a "next quarter" problem.

I'm aware that TARP funds were repaid. Still, a bunch of that money went straight into bonuses [1]. Honestly, I'd rather the company be seized, restructured and sold.

You know who ends up making sacrifices to keep a company afloat? The labor force. After 2008, auto workers took voluntary pay cuts, gave up benefits and otherwise did what they could to keep the company afloat, benefits it took them ~15 years to fight to get back. In a just world, executive compensation would go down to $1 until such a time that labor sacrifices are repaid.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jul/30/bank-bonuse...