Debbie Dingell: “Even a small increase in the likelihood of large, possibly criminal penalties for egregious misbehavior of CEOs can have…”

“Even a small increase in the likelihood of large, possibly criminal penalties for egregious misbehavior of CEOs can have profoundly important effects on all aspects of corporate governance because the fulcrum of governance is the chief executive officer. What he is saying there is, put them in jail, they will understand. The problem here is that the bill that the House has passed has nothing on criminal penalties but the bill passed yesterday does. The motion to instruct takes care of that problem. I think we ought to adopt the Senate bill because the Senate bill is a good bill. The House bill is nothing. It is pablum. On the 30th of June, the New York Times warned that there is a staggering rush of corporate debacles and that they are raising a disturbing question: Can capitalism survive the capitalists themselves? It should be noted the market has fallen, it should be noted the dollar is weaker, all of which, experts say, is related to the behavior of Global Crossing, Enron, Adelphia, WorldCom and others. We need strong medicine, not a placebo.”