Way to Cherry Pick.
Meanwhile: Madoff is in Jail for life 2 Generals and two different cabinet officials have been forced to resign Seattle PD is under Justice Department microscope Book publishers forced to repay customers for price fixing BP pays huge fine and has Executives indicted Entire trading firms under indictment
Its a mixed bag. It always is.
1. Madoff ripped off rich people, nobody cared until he then.
2. Sex scandals don't count. They make such great news that everyone gets taken down by them.
3. It's a gov't agency. The rest of us are busy complaining about how private companies get away with murder (HSBC anyone?)
4. And the fine was still significantly less than the profits from the price fixing.
5. See above.
6. See above.
There's a phrase I don't hear often enough: Corporate Death Penalty.
but they're still actual human beings
Who take money from other human being and promise to pay them dividends at some future time (that's what a stock is -- a right to vote in an entity which promises but does not guarantee future dividends). And that money which they take from those human beings has been taxed at least once (and in many case multiple times).
Factorials were someone's attempt to make math LOOK exciting.