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I was pondering these over the weekend and I have a question for those of you more knowledgeable about Wall Street.

The last thing we want is for the government to step in and take over the trains. However, does the government have the authority to force an industry to be delisted?

I know Congress is working on new laws regarding railroads maintaining their tracks and fleets much better than they currently are, but I'm curious about the delisting.

I believe if they were delisted, with no ability to ever IPO again, it would remove a large incentive to cut costs where ever possible each quarter. Sure, greed would still be there, but attaching actually large fines for failures to comply would help keep that in check. This would be especially true if new legislation allowed for executives of railroads to be found personally responsible for stuff not being maintained or otherwise knowingly causing safety issues. I think there would be a different decision making process in the board room if executives knew cutting safety to save a buck meant they could spend some time getting anally probed in a prison.

Has an industry/board of executives/stockholders (company owners) ever actually been punished for saving money/cost cutting to the extent where their product/service killed people?

The railroad has been "saving money" by fucking over the workers for a long time, now. I have a feeling the recent derailments can probably be traced back to workers being pissed off at Biden for busting the union, and now they are doing bare minimum.

Leisher wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 4:18 pm However, does the government have the authority to force an industry to be delisted?

No. There are a few minor caveats where the government can take over a business, but it would be exceptionally rare (think back to the last financial crisis, even then government mostly got partial ownership (equity) not complete control).

GORDON wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 5:33 pm Has an industry/board of executives/stockholders (company owners) ever actually been punished for saving money/cost cutting to the extent where their product/service killed people?

Yes. But do you mean criminally punished, or civilly? I'm sure it's happened, but is super rare, criminally. People have certainly been fired/etc for it.

Yeah, I meant punitively.

Didn't Ford get exposed for having done nothing about a defect that was legit killing people in the 80s? They knew, but did the math and facing the lawsuits was cheaper than a recall. Lots of people died. Pretty sure nobody went to jail.