By now we've all read the anonymous Congresscritter's memo calling for some sort of gratuitous (but feel-good) slap at the worst offenders of the bailout crisis--a moment in the public stocks. Congressperson X suggests mandatory credit counseling, but I don't think that's humbling enough. A regulatory lifetime ban on working in the financial services industry (or related fields, or lobbying) would be better, but that's still just enforced early retirement.
I think a better idea would be some sort of deal whereby, in exchange for criminal immunity and civil indemnity, the various Bad People would agree to do community service. A hell of a lot of community service. 10,000 hours (five years' worth, if they're industrious about it) sounds about right for the top echelon.
Of course, we'd pretty much have to go through the top few hundred names on the Rolodex in each failed institution to make sure we weren't letting some people slip through the net (CFOs, Presidents, VPs, CBDs, individual Directors, and all the other people with real decision-making power). Maybe some of them could do just 2,000, or 500, depending on their actions.
And obviously there will be plenty who didn't know about the bad acts, or couldn't stop them, or are otherwise innocent. But hopefully we'll be checking on them all the same. There's not much point in just singling out a few particularly fat fatcats for public scorn and reparations, if we're hoping to avoid another systemic failure down the road.
10,000 hours of community service is probably both too lenient and too harsh, in its way. But I bet it'd catch on with the public, being a nice round number and a punishment usually associated with making amends for irresponsible behavior.
And think of how nice it would be for our community organizers to have some help!