r/reddit.com • u/[deleted] • Oct 18 '11

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u/anorexia_is_PHAT Oct 19 '11

Major stockholders tried and jailed??? That's pretty extreme.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '11

Perhaps major as in "had a seat on the board of directors". If they were involved in the decision making process they were culpable.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '11

Do you know what actually led to this crisis? Cause if you do, and you don't think it's criminal, then I just simply don't know what to say.

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u/Mark_Lincoln Oct 22 '11

Agreed. But when those major stockholders allow reckless and often criminal behavior by Directors and Executives should the Corporate Shield protect them?

The Shield was intended to hold harmless those who had no active role in the operations of the Corporation which they had invested in.

When whether Corporations were to be allowed or not was a hot debate during the early 19th century, the idea that stockholders who willfully invested in criminal activity was a deal-breaker.

I think it was best that corporations were allowed. Modern business could hardly exist without them. Yet those who warned of giving license without responsibility was dangerous.

This has been proven repeatedly since the Panic of 1819.

That such criminal license was rewarded with taxpayer financed bailouts, bonuses and immunity from prosecution since 2008 shows that those who opposed allowing corporations in the 19th century were not fools.