[wildmXranat]

On the flip-side, how is it that publicly elected officials are not indicted or held responsible for creating these loopholes after being lobbied and end up costing their shareholders - the public, some real coin. I think of the whole thing as a closed loop ecosystem and somebody has to be losing, if a group of shareholders is gaining.

[001sky]

This is actually a valid question. Surprisingly, in business you can argue your incompetence shields you. The "business judgement rule"[1] says basically you are allowed to make "mistakes". But you're not allowed to be "negligent", act bad faith or whatever.

[1] In the USA, viz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_judgment_rule