Warren Buffett said bank CEOs and directors who mismanage their institutions should face disciplinary consequences so as not to reward irresponsible behavior.
While the Berkshire Hathaway CEO stopped short of explicitly calling for criminal prosecutions and prison sentences, his argument reopens old wounds from the 2008 global financial crisis. Not one major Wall Street banker ever went to jail for their role in that debacle, which plunged the U.S. economy into its longest and—prior to COVID—deepest postwar recession, costing taxpayers an estimated $500 billion by one calculation.
