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> the US can’t retrospectively prosecute bankers

AFAIK there were poor decisions and bad investments but not straight up fraud.

Nobody needed to be jailed; there were a few that needed to be allowed to fail.

You're forgetting robo-signing foreclosure affidavits in the wake of the financial crisis. That's potentially hundreds of thousands of counts of fraud. The banks were only forced to settle, and were not prosecuted. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_foreclosure...

I thought the robo-signing meant fraud for mortgage companies not banks. But perhaps I was wrong.

poor decisions and bad investments but not straight up fraud

LIBOR rigging?

And FX rigging ...

Speaking morally, rather than legally, the packaging of loans into CDOs was clearly fraudulent, basically the equivalent of tampering with the mile meter in your car before selling it. The fact that there is apparently no law to prosecute people under is a failure of our various legislatures and judicial systems.

But for both Libor and FX people went to jail. I think the original poster was refering to banker going to jail for causing the 2008 crisis.

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