Mark Whitehouse, Columnist

Can $300 Billion Make Companies Behave?

Despite big fines, they keep breaking the law.

November 14, 2016 at 7:25 AM UTC

Mark Whitehouse is a member of the editorial board covering global economics and finance. Previously, he reported on economics for the Wall Street Journal and was managing editor of Vedomosti, a Russian-language business daily.

Number one.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

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Are U.S. authorities being overzealous in their efforts to extract money from corporate miscreants? Actually, the right question might be why, despite the advent of multi-billion-dollar penalties, companies keep breaking the law.

A new batch of fines -- most notably the Justice Department's $14 billion opening bid to settle the mortgage-related transgressions of Germany's Deutsche Bank AG -- has caused a lot of consternation. Some central bankers have worried out loud that the sheer volume of legal costs could be stunting global growth.