In fact, people did go to jail.

Here's just one example, but there are others...

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/seven-defendants-mortgage-ori...

Also, the CEOs and employees of the banks like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch in question large portions of their life savings.

The CEO of Lehman, for example, lost 50% of his net worth - over 4 Billion dollars. ...and obviously destroyed his reputation. Well deserved, of course, but it's hardly "no punishment".

...the same was true with most if not all senior employees. All of them had large portions of their compensation in equity stock options. I'm, unfortunately, speaking from experience.

It's one thing to say the people "responsible" didn't get punished enough - that's true. But most people at these banks definitely suffered, materially.

when people argue that they didn't go to jail, i take it to mean that those who were "responsible" didn't suffer "enough". Where enough is taken to mean an eye for an eye.

Whether you subscribe to this sort of thinking is up to you - i don't, but the result is that the people who suffered don't feel they've been vindicated nor made whole, and the world has moved on since.

Genuine question: what laws were broken in 2008 (assuming you are referencing the ‘Great Recession’)?