This long-term fraud is one of the better cases for which there are likely to be thousands of individuals who should be held criminally and financially responsible. It is clear that many financial institutions will be held responsible.
If the thousands or even perhaps tens of thousands of individuals involved are forced to pay restitution damages in addition to punitive damages, would this further the cause of justice? I am of the mindset that it will. Do the world's prosecutors and politicians have the balls and/or resources to do it?
It may be all well and good to crucify ten thousand people, but unless there is a plan in place for the aftermath we'll still have a broken system ... and a lot of bodies, figuratively speaking.
Ooh! I know a good plan! How about we investigate and prosecute fraud? The idea is that this would create an incentive not to commit fraud in the future.
Former bank regulator William K. Black says that the agency he worked for during the 1980s S&L crisis made over 10000 criminal referrals to the Justice Department, producing over 1000 felony convictions. That crisis was 1/70th the size of this one. How many criminal referrals have been made in this one? Zero. How is that possible? The answer Black gives is: total gutting of the investigatory system. What you don't look for, you don't find.
That's a long runway for due process before anyone needs to dust off words like "crucify".
(I'm not giving a citation because although the above is easy to google, I don't know which of the websites are any good. I got it from watching interviews. Is Black credible? His experience in the field seems exemplary.)
If you change the law such that many behaviors which were once illegal are now legal (which some would argue was the upshot of repealing Glass-Steagall), then the negative consequences which may ensue aren't necessarily criminal.
> It may be all well and good to crucify ten thousand people
There are millions working in worldwide finance. By "crucifying" (must you really be so hyperbolic here?) a small complicit fraction of these, you send the signal to the rest: there are conequences for malfeasance.
It's the same reason we have the concept pf prison in the first place - as a deterrent. The thousands of people who might be sent to jail are certainly replaceable. Justice dictates they should be, as well.
If the thousands or even perhaps tens of thousands of individuals involved are forced to pay restitution damages in addition to punitive damages, would this further the cause of justice? I am of the mindset that it will. Do the world's prosecutors and politicians have the balls and/or resources to do it?