OK, so if all house values have crashed at the same rate (generally what happens in cases like this), the equity that they lost doesn’t make much of a difference because they can buy a new, larger home with the difference still based on your new sell value.
Of course, this can mean being “underwater” but that literally does not matter in the big picture (besides of course the mental burden of having to give more than needed to corrupt banks), provided that you are still able to afford the mortgage. 2008 included massive job loss which means people would have had to walk away from their mortgages even if their houses appreciated as people without jobs could not buy the houses.
If you bought a mortgage you can’t afford because you wanted a house during a huge bubble, then you already fucked yourself regardless of the market. Or if you lost you job in a bad market (like now), then it is really unfortunate and the billionaires and companies need to be compelled to actually pay their taxes to keep the unemployment payments running.
That should definitely be illegal… Absolutely zero logic, just corruption.
Also hoping for the worst for that CEO, the board, and the entire management suite.