At Davos:

If atonement is difficult, retribution may prove “brutally difficult,” Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht said in an interview in Davos. As Sternlicht sees it, “everyone wants a head, and that’s not reasonable. To do that, you’d need to take out the top 20 executives at the 300 biggest financial firms.”

Not reasonable? Why not?

20 is not a very great number, after all. It's certainly smaller than two (now four?) trillion.

So, why not turn the banks into regulated public utilities? That would take out the top 20 executives, and a lot more of 'em, too.

NOTE Obama and the Dems bleating now about executive compensation is such pissant stuff; it's a transparent sop to public outrage. Where are the clawbacks? Where are the RICO prosecutions? And where were our tribunes of the people when Tim Geithner's golfing buddies looted $70 billion for salaries and bonuses from TARP money the back in October, immediately after Red + Pelosi + Obama + Bush + Paulson got TARP passed?

Nowhere, that's where they were. The Village is so out of touch that they didn't even think people would notice. Now, the Village knows that we've noticed; they just think we're kabuki-lovin' fools.

UPDATE Sternlicht's bio.