Can't say I understand the logic here.
How does someone benefiting from a broken system make that person culpable for the brokenness? Someone who was shrewd enough to understand what was happening, and was well-positioned to gain as a result of it isn't necessary guilty of any crime that can be prosecuted successfully, and not arbitrarily.
Sure, the masses want justice, but scapegoating isn't how it's done. Following the letter or spirit of the law (or amending the law, if necessary) is how we forge justice in a free society. Otherwise, we're just witch-hunting and doing very little to fix the systemic problems.

*quality except for the fact that those who benefited "legally" also happen to be the ones who rigged the system to make it "legal".

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by Grimm.

See Grimm's comment.

Where do you draw the line though?

CMBS or RMBS made money for "bankers". Well some bankers anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bank_failures_in_the_United_States_(2008%E2%80%93present)

However it also drove home sales (and home building). Are the home builders responsible for people taking mortgages on houses they could not afford?

What about the realtor/broker who showed them the house?

Or the developer who developed it?

Or the appraiser who appraised the property for hundreds of thousands of dollars more in value than it is worth now?

Or the people at Freddie Mac who earnestly wanted to put lower income people in homes?

Now, you take all the money from the bankers that survived and you give it to who?

The people who bought a house, put very little money into it, and now have to give it back?

The real estate developers who lost everything? (Of which there are many)

It all sounds well and good to take from one group and give to someone else, but I think it is easy to point the finger at the bankers and not take a look in the mirror. We all did this and allowed it to happen.

That said bankers shouldn't be making big money when they are losing big money...

I don't have an answer for your other questions, but one potential answer here is (and I'm going to be crucified for this).... the government.

Who then can use it for schools, roads, even (the horror!) healthcare!

@Grimm's comment gives the banksters far more credit than they deserve.

And @ChaosEngine wants to give the money to the government. That way, you'll never see it again.

In the US, probably not. I assume they'll just buy more drones or give it straight back to the people they took it from.

In the civilised part of the world, they'd build a school or possibly even a hospital

In Canada, we regulate our banks so much they can't fart without permission. That being said, no of our banks failed during the crash. Some people criticize us for over regulation, but all I can say is, Canada was either one of the few or the only country who didn't have their banks go belly up and need bail outs.

Like @Grimm said, these fellas did not just profit from a flaw in the system. They spent vast amounts of time and money lobbying for changes to the system, changes which made these exploits possible in the first place. Exploits that in most cases are still in violation of the law over here, but the oversight was starved out to a point of non-existence or simply handed over to entities they should be monitoring in the first place.

As a result, the City of London in particular accumulated enough economical leverage to hold the entire country hostage, knowing full well how a sweep of the City would lead to catastrophic ripples not only through the UK and Europe, but the entire bloody world. So now they can do whatever they please without fear of repercussions as seen in the case of HSBC.

This selective application of the law breeds contempt for the law, particularly if compared to the poor who get hammered for the slightest inconsistency in their paperwork. Too big to fail undermines the free market, but too big to jail undermines the basic rule of law.

Even in the very few cases that were prosecuted, only the institution was penalised, never any high level individual. Some of those responsible need to be held accountable, otherwise the riots in Tottenham will look like child's play compared to what will happen the next time these idiots drive the entire economy to the brink of collapse.

By the way, I'm still waiting for someone to end up in jail for the rigging of Libor or ISDAfix.

The rich interests including those bankers have led the charge for deregulation and they are the reason that they can take advantage of the system now. They created the propaganda, they funded the candidates, they control everything. The Rich own this country and we need to take it from them and make the democracy function again.

Also taking advantage of a system that hurts people is still unethical even if you aren't the one who broke it. As I pointed out, that doesn't apply in this case.

Why? Why do people think that the government is some alien force that we have no control of? Oh I know, it's because the Rich get everything they want and the rest get basically nothing of want they want. You can look at opinion polls the lower 70% never get what they want unless the extremely rich want it too.

In the end it all comes down to campaign finance reform. We need to remove legalized bribery from this equation. Overturn "citizens united". Nothing will ever change if your middle income voice is an unheard whisper amidst the deafening deluge of money flowing from major banks and multinational corporations (a.k.a "people").

Inheritance is exponential - if you're born with a million dollars it's a lot easier to make a million dollars than if you're born with nothing. So the families that obsess about gold, rent seek and hoard wealth selfishly rule by default after a few generations, and the ones that share wealth with the disadvantaged and think about other things (arts, science, philosophy, engineering, humanitarian action or just a fair days work for a fair days pay) are left increasingly poor.

Charitable giving as a proportion of income is an INVERSE CURVE- the more you have the less you give.

Every 3 or 4 hundred years the shit hits the fan and the system is reset through widespread bloodletting. This has been true for ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY. Why would would this time be different?

All those people lost their homes.

How much of "their" home did they own? Oh maybe 5 percent equity...if that.

I've been a renter for 9 years. I have a large savings account that I add to each month so when I buy a house I will actually OWN part of it.

Yep if every person that earns 10.000 euro's or more in a month let a 1000 drop we could cover many things and let the working class have a break!!! And that means every politicien in every country!!!

Not everyone who profited from the collapse were criminal bankers, there were a few independent finance people that saw there was a bubble and placed bets accordingly just by doing good research.

Still, there are quite a few people in the banking industry that should be in jail for what they did in the housing crisis. There's more going on aside from that, NOBODY went to jail when HSBC got caught laundering billions for drug cartels even though they clearly knew what they were doing!!!!!

Technology.

Up to about a century ago, conflict was essentially decided by who was willing/able to throw the most humans into the grinder to beat the other guy. If people rose up against their masters, the masters had nothing to fight them with.

Nowadays they have drones, tanks, rockets and probably killer satellites or some other shit. Armed peasants really don't present as much of a threat any more.

People are still an essential part of a working military, tanks and drones still require people to operate them, even in this day and age you still need boots on the ground to properly hold territory. And most of those people are not going to be coming from the monied elite but the middle an lower classes. Many often feel uneasy with the things we do to people overseas, I wonder how they'll feel about doing it to their neighbors right in their own backyards.

@ChaosEngine @Grimm @Yogi @cosmovitelli @radx

At this point, best I can do is withdraw my consent from the entire system. I refuse to organize against the governing forces since I have no intention of serving as a martyr. I'll help those who ask for help, but those who support or even fight for the governing forces don't want help and I therefore have no interest in helping them.

At this point mostly everyone at all levels is part of a machine that's gone out of anyone's "control." Obama doesn't control things. The banksters don't control things. The thing now just runs on its own accord, and will continue to do so for as long as enough people still continue to give their consent or are beneficiaries of it. This shitshow will contiue until it collapses from its own weight.

Not for long!

http://youtu.be/W5BJaibeNOM

You're right - but the same could be said of every historical social collapse. The English aristocracy had a hundred years warning before the kings head came off. The Romans had it made till they started choosing leaders by who their daddy was. Greed is not a philosophy and it's not a plan.
'Capitalism contains the seed of its own destruction'.

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