It seems the financial world lurches from scandal to scandal as if coated with Teflon, shrugging off demands for accountability.
Errant financiers are a tiny minority, but have come under scrutiny because they not only keep their riches, but also demand fat bonuses and mostly stay out of prison. Their misdemeanors involve the meltdown of the world's financial system in 2007 and all the collateral damage inflicted since. Derivatives geeks and their accomplices created a house of cards founded on highly leveraged bets — and it all came tumbling down.
Among the best post-mortems on the sub-prime mortgage catastrophe are Matt Taibbi's "Griftopia" (2011) and Michael Lewis' "The Big Short" (2010).