Safety engineering for banks

The Financial Times magazine on Saturday 15th January ran a fascinating feature discussing how the disciplines of safety engineering for nuclear power stations could and should be applied to the kind of financial engineering that provoked the financial meltdown. It was a persuasive thesis. But there is a a fundamental difference. If you are in charge of a nuclear reactor that goes haywire, then, guilty or not, you are likely to suffer serious personal consequences - even death. If you are in charge of a failed bank - even if you are guilty as hell, you will emerge richly rewarded.