This is a really big deal. We should all be really worried that A/ folks in charge of this much of the economy are acting this way B/ our culture expects the taxpayers to bail these people out.
Bailouts are generally far between. The problem that enables your point /A is that the only thing that happens is that banks are fined in settlements. Since they keep doing these things, it must still be profitable, so the fines must just be license fees to act as they want. As such, the regulators profit from the fines; it's probably how the regulators' lawyers can afford to be paid, and they're probably mindful of that.
