I don't think it's fair to say that people who defaulted during the 2008 mortgage-backed securities crisis did so because they lacked sufficient macroeconomic k

I don't think it's fair to say that people who defaulted during the 2008 mortgage-backed securities crisis did so because they lacked sufficient macroeconomic knowledge to make prudent financial decisions. Some were offered loans (for a variety of bad reasons) that they could not repay if they encountered even the slightest setback in their current financial decisions. Those people should bear some responsibility for that poor choice as should those who offered them the loans for which they shouldn't really have qualified. Others exploited the process by strategically defaulting on mortgages after extracting money due to appreciation on the underlying property. IMO, that's unfair and borders on the fraudulent if they never intended to pay back the mortgages they took out. There were other problems that contributed as well, but none of the causes are so easily characterized that anyone who lost money should expect to see someone jailed as a consequence of their misfortune.