At least with respect to the 2008 financial crisis, there was actual fraud going on there. People were lying about lots of things. Doing it a little may be su

At least with respect to the 2008 financial crisis, there was actual fraud going on there. People were lying about lots of things. Doing it a little may be subject to breach of contract lawsuits. Doing it a lot is fraud, and can be prosecuted. Sadly, hardly anyone was indicted, so there's no point (yet) to debating the usefulness of the death penalty for white collar crimes.