DEPENDS ON WHO'S DOING THE LOOTING

Looters are often shot on sight in war zones, during rioting or in the midst of natural disasters. When things are so bad that war, rioting, earthquakes or hurricanes are decimating a city, the thinking is that looters only make things worse, if that's at all possible. And so the popular wisdom is to shoot them dead as an example to other would-be looters and therefore maintain as much semblance of public order as is possible under the circumstances. Now if we could only apply that zero tolerance looting policy to the boardrooms of publicly held corporations, we might be getting somewhere.

In the news is one Nancy Heinen, a corporate lawyer for Apple Computers, a multi-billion dollar corporation that produces Mac computers and iPhones. She was charged with back-dating stock options for senior executives at Apple, including its founder and head honcho Steve Jobs. Her case did not go to trial as she copped a plea, paying 2 million dollars in restitution and interest plus a $200,000 fine and agreeing to a 5 year ban against serving as an officer or director of any publicly held company. Also, in a separate hearing before the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), she consented to a 3-year suspension of her right to be a practicing attorney for a public company.

Beats getting shot dead on sight with a stolen boom box on your back. It is estimated that her back-dating scheme cost Apple stockholders 40 million dollars, and for this she walks, and gets to keep her license to practice her profession in any other area of law or for a privately held company. By the way, the Apple corporation faced no charges, and only one executive returned his share of the booty, 3.5 million bucks, with no admission of wrong-doing. No word on the 7.5 mil Steve Jobs robbeed. Sounds like Ms. Heinen took one for the team, fell on her sword, so to speak. What that cost Apple shareholders is unknown, and now the matter is closed forever. But notice the terms "agreed to" and "consented to" in these proceedings. Pretty sweet for somebody accused of looting millions. The guy with boom box and the hole in his forehead would have loved the opportunity to "consent" and "agree" to getting shot dead. It's just his bad fortune that he was stealing a $200 stereo from a burnt out store instead of 40 million dollars of somebody else's money with the stroke of a pen.

Had he survived his shooting and been arrested and convicted for the crime, he might have been sentenced to a few years in prison not only for the theft, but of violating the peace, during a war or a riot or natural disaster, no less. What peace the law could be referring to at times like that is another question, and what penalty accrues to the shooters-on-sight who decide on the spot who's a looter and who's crossing the street to avoid the gunfire or taking food to survive is never mentioned, since there are no penalties for that sort of thing. Nor do there seem to be any dire consequences for corporate princes and princesses who feel it is okay to double or triple their already magnificent salaries by looting the treasuries of the corporations they work for but do not own.

Once a company goes public it is owned by the shareholders. Shareholders trust the corporate officers to conduct business properly so as to protect their investment and earn a profit on their money. That's capitalism and it works. But what we have here is America lately is a bunch of looters in the boardrooms, stealing billions and billions from the people who own the company, turning capitalism upside down. Not only do top corporate executives bitch and moan about the paltry wages and benefits they grudgingly pay to the workers who make the company run, but they help themselves to ridiculously high salaries and larcenous stock options packages as well as huge go-away money deals if they screw up, called Golden Parachutes.

Stockholders do not have any say in the matter either, another curious lapse in the rules of ownership/employee. The CEO's of Standard and Poor's top 500 companies made an average of 14.2 million dollars in compensation in 2007. That sure wasn't the soskholders' decision. That's around $6,800 an hour. Not too hard to make ends meet with a salary like that. Almost anybody would be turning cartwheels at their good fortune to be making 14 mil per, and would work their butt off to make sure that corporation keeps on making money to keep that gravy train rolling. But that's the average person, who is decent and honest. There doesn't seem to be much room in elite corporate circles for decency and honesty.

Witness the huge scale bank robberies done recently from the inside, nearly forcing the collapse of large segments of the mortgage banking industry, who then tried to place the blame on ordinary homeowners. Like anyone was buying the fact that it was the fault of some poor sap in Anaheim with 2 jobs and a working wife struggling to keep up with mortgage payments that balloon every year like a loan shark's vig. For years the government has been putting people like that is jail for usury. Who knew they were clearing the loan shark field for the corporate looters?

Where were the shoot-on-sight looting police then? These bozos not only brought their companies and shareholders to the brink of financial ruin, but the rest of us as well in the form of Federal bailouts (Our tax dollars)for these billionaires' crimes. Nobody took away their palatial homes and private jets, unlike the sap in Anaheim facing foreclosure on his split level ranch home and repossession of his beat-up car. For every Enron and Freddy Mac scandal unearthed, there's scores if not hundreds more going on right now, almost none of which will result in arrests or a wrist slap from the SEC, to say nothing of being shot down in the street. So, like too much else in this world, what is right and wrong depends on which side of the gun you are standing. Or which side of the corporate office door.

Well, maybe it's time to position some sharpshooters in the boardrooms with the authority to shoot to kill. It will probably only take thirty or forty such shootings to send an unambiguous message that a thief is a thief and looters will be dealt with harshly. Severe? Perhaps, but look at the upside for other corporate officers who will be taking their places. Think of all the desirable country club memberships that will suddenly open up.