US Senator wants Wall Street executives to deliver Japanese-style apologies

I’d like to see them bow but no it wouldn’t accomplish anything. Maybe self flagellation.

Since greed and pride go hand in hand, I don’t think we will ever see the people responsible make any sort of apology. While the senator has expressed a good sentiment, he hasn’t said it well. We would all like to see the people responsible take some action (or have some action taken against them!) to express their regret. But what we would all like even more is for the problem to be fixed. In that sense, nothing that a CEO of a failed company with a $17 million golden parachute says is going to satisfy the general public. Until some legal action is taken to make this kind of behavior unprofitable it is going to keep happening. We all love capitalism to some extent, but sometimes a more socialist approach to controlling the banking system is appropriate. It may be time for some serious controls to be put back in place on the American banking system.

I also don’t think that bowing is going to fly here. Bowing just isn’t American, and I don’t mean to phrase it in a Fox News-esque manner, but it really isn’t. The values that call for that sort of thing don’t exist here, and they probably never will.

And while I’m thinking about it, if you’re going to apologize, say it like you mean it and don’t feed the TV cameras the “if I did or said anything that might have offended anybody, I apologize” shtick and run off to hide under your golden parachute. You might as well not say anything at all if you’re going to halfass it like that.

Pretty surprised to see an R by the Senator’s name!

I agree with others that bowing is not the important thing, so much as a public apology.

People at the top of these companies rake in ridiculous amounts of money, and in the majority of cases their company going belly up just means that they’ll only be able to afford *one* yacht this year. Some CEOs end up playing with the company, and the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people, as if it were some sort of game. When things go sour they can quickly distance themselves from the problem and pass the buck this way or that.

I think a public apology would do wonders for bringing CEOs closer to the public and the people who work for them, and giving an actual sense of responsibility to them and their position.

Of course, that’s not to say that it always works in Japan… *cough*Nova*cough*