The chickenshit club
"Why were no bankers put in prison after the financial crisis of 2008? Why do CEOs seem to commit wrongdoing with impunity? The problem goes beyond banks deemed "Too Big to Fail" to almost every large corporation in America-- to pharmaceutical companies and auto manufacturers and beyond. The Chickenshit Club-- an inside reference to prosecutors too scared of failure and too daunted by legal impediments to do their jobs-- explains why. A character-driven narrative, the book tells the story from inside the Department of Justice. The complex and richly reported story spans the last decade and a half of prosecutorial fiascos, corporate lobbying, trial losses, and culture shifts that have stripped the government of the will and ability to prosecute top corporate executives. Exposing one of the most important scandals of our time, [this book] provides a clear, detailed explanation as to how our Justice Department has come to avoid, bungle, and mismanage the fight to bring these alleged criminals to justice."--Amazon.
Stats for nerds
25recommend
49mentions
37people
2017–2026years
59% recommend41% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The system is broken and I can't see a way to fix it.
With blood.
No I'm not being edgy. That is the only way anything is going to change regarding the litany of fucked up corporate practices in our country. Our governments are ineffective at best and are active abettors at worst (read The Chickenshit Club for why they won't ever seriously prosecute execs). Boeing (completely different scenario from the OP but it's recent) has no qualms with killing to maintain the status quo, why should people that want actual change be any different?
- Indeed. For a very good book on the subject, read "The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives" (2017)
- For a deep drive, read The Chickenshit Club:
https://www.amazon.com/Chickenshit-Club-Department-Prosecute...
- A lot of people here asking "Why is the fine so low, how does this happen!" I recommend reading "The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives"[0] which is obviously a bit broader than just fines, but does touch on the history and current state of things with respect to corporate malfeasance.
One thing that I did not know (too young to be paying close enough attention at the time), but was interesting to me was the backlash from Arthur Andersen collapsing and the resulting loss of jobs as part of the whole Enron scandal. This was at least somewhat blamed on government overreach in going after Enron, even if that wasn't exactly the case, and helped to set the table for quite a slide in standards over time.
[0]https://www.npr.org/2017/07/30/535799735/corporate-bungling-...
- a good book to read about this lack of prosecution is called "the chickenshit club" by Jesse Eisinger. In it the author explores prosecution paralysis brought on by a fear of destabilizing markets, and that this fear ultimately led to fines being preferred over jailtime. it also dives into the revolving door between prosecutors of these organizations and the organizations themselves, and the fact that no prosecutor wants a losing case on their record as it may adversely affect their chance of career success.
Its also interesting to note from the book that a CEO fired from a company and indicted may continue to receive payments or parachutes from that company in order to fight government charges and keep quiet about improprieties, whereas other types of criminals see all assets frozen upon such criminal proceedings.
- > This issue can be solved with mandatory insurance and compensation structure. For this sensitive private health information compensation should be at least 5 figures per person, no excuses. A data breach involving 10,000 people could cost 100s of millions.
Cheaper to not worry about that and just pay the hackers occasionally then.
In market based economies, the state is not serious about fines and convictions of corporations because the state doesn't want to be responsible for making monopolies of the remaining companies in the country.
You can read more about this in the book "The Chickenshit Club"
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