[PEN-L:33315] Re: the humbling?

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 18 Dec 2002 Nomiprins@xxxxxxx wrote:

> What reforms??

Just of curiousity, Nomi, what do you think of these fines that have been
leveled against the Wall Street banks?  Grouped together as a global
number, $1.4 billion certain sounds like a lot of money; it's got a b in
it.  Has any industry ever been fined this much for anything?  And yet I
get the impression they'll have no problem swinging it.  If so, this would
seem like a reductio ad absurdum argument against the idea that fines
can ever be an effective way of regulating corporate behavior.

One other question.  One reform is supposedly that it will henceforth be
illegal for banks to distribute LBO shares to executives or directors.
That seems like a reasonable change they wouldn't have done on their own,
no?  Or is there a loophole around it?

Michael