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Apologies, I realize I've gone off the rails from the OP, which talks about "too big to fail". The thing is, once $Xb of damage has been done, the shortfall has to be made up somewhere. In the case of the oil spill, we can a) let the Gulf economy eat all the losses, b) force BP to provide compensation (ultimately hurting ourselves as pension-holders, c) use public funds (again coming out of our own pocketbooks through taxation), or d) organize a private bailout (i.e. charity - again our own pocketbooks). In no case is there a way to simply avoid the loss - the loss has been incurred, and will hit us one way or another. It is a mere matter of distribution.
Read more: http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-...#ixzz0qUIHnnCN
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I'm sorry but that's acting as though the people who owned BP stock were mere bystanders. In our 401k setup, even though intermediates buy/sell our stuff for us usually, we ARE owners of the corporation. If everyone was so worried about it they could easily give the CEOs a huge hassle of keeping their job/pensions/parachutes.
Owning stocks means you own the company. You're not a bystander.
Honestly I'm surprised those pension funds who are losing their ass don't rise up and fire the CEOs to save their stocks from plunging.