Technology & Innovation — April 30, 2010

Banking and Looting

Plenty of people on Wall Street knew that a crash was coming—and that they responded by grabbing all the profit they could, writes Christopher Hayes. He thinks they should face criminal sanctions.

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The earliest chronicles of the recent financial meltdown “tended to portray it as a tale of groupthink and mania, of hubris and shortsightedness: all these smart people got it wrong!” Christopher Hayes writes that while that is true of many, it’s also clear that plenty of people on Wall Street knew that a crash was coming—and that they responded by grabbing all the profit they could. Hayes thinks there ought to be serious criminal consequences for this looting.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

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