Should Wall Street chiefs go to jail?

Taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill while the Wall Street wizards who caused the financial meltdown waltz away with millions, said Ann Woolner in Bloomberg, and only one thing will ease the pain. “Toss the rascals in jail.”

“Wall Street fat cats” always make good scapegoats, said Jonah Goldberg in National Review Online. But this isn’t their fault. “The current financial crisis stems in large part from the fact that people who shouldn’t have been buying a home, or who bought more home than they could afford, now can’t pay their bills.”

Come on, said Iranian investment banker Ali Ettefagh in The Washington Post online, surely a country that imposes stiff penalties on ordinary citizens who default on their taxes can justify punishing the “reckless financiers who set the banking system on fire” and cost taxpayers billions. “What happened to accountability" and "due and proper care of other people's money?”

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