Where were the directors? Fairly or not, that's been a big question in the aftermath of the financial crisis. You cannot blame people for pondering what steps the directors were taking as the likes of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were imploding. It may have been that they did everything humanly possible in the wake of the twin disaster. Whatever your view, we can all agree that they have not faced much in the way of consequences--nor will they.

The Deal Professor has taken a look at what has become of the former Enron outside directors and found that "they have recovered nicely from the scandal." And so it goes for the former directors of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. None of the directors appear to have suffered in their careers. Some are still active in business. Some went back to academia. Others remain on the boards of other companies. Some have quietly retired.

There are some obvious difference between Enron and the financial companies, notably that the CEO and chairman of the former were prosecuted. Former CEO Jeff Skilling remains in jail. Meanwhile, the top dogs at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers have escaped prosecution. In addition, the Enron directors were subject to a $165 million settlement of shareholder litigation, of which they personally had to pay $13 million.

Many people have raised the issue of director and executive culpability in the financial crisis. It is without a doubt a big governance issue, and may would agree that the directors of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and other banks got away with doing a poor job at the least. Still, it's getting harder to generate real anger over this. Maybe the financial crisis truly has passed.

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