Even as the rest of Washington debated why the grave robbers of AIG should continue to profit from the carnage they helped cause, Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, tended to the mob: He’d feel a little better, he said, if AIG’s executives would “follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.” Grassley’s spokesman later clarified that he was just “speaking rhetorically” as far as the suicide part went. I’d settle for a pageant of public shaming, in which the scoundrels must beg forgiveness and make amends; we’d claw back those bonuses, foreclose on their castles, auction their toys, watch the once mighty prowl a grocery aisle calculating whether they can afford the big box of cereal that is a better deal but ties up more capital
