I don't think Skilling did what every CEO does. He was convicted of conspiracy, insider trading, lying to the feds, and I think some other things as well. He deserves to be sitting in his cell.

CEOs do paint a rosy picture of their company. But they don't generally cook the books or use their knowledge of the company to dump their shares just before they report a fiscal quarter, knowing that the stock is going to tank very soon.

And frankly, the bank CEOs screwed up. But there's no sense in sending them to jail. Because everybody else screwed up as well. Mortgage companies and banks did give out way too many subprime loans. But irresponsible borrowers took out loans they never should have taken out. They are just as much at fault. AIG insured these ridiculous loans, which forced us to pay for them. Fannie and Freddie bought the loans from the banks, which also put the costs on the taxpayers' backs. Investment houses repackaged the loans as mortgage backed securities and sold them as cash alternatives, which turned out to be entirely false. And Congress was doing nothing before the entire system started to collapse.

A lot of people blame the CEOs of the banks, but really, there's no way we can direct responsibility at just them. Lots and lots of people were instrumental in the collapse, so unless somebody committed outright fraud, I can't see anybody going to jail for it.

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