Contract Law. As breach of contract is a Civil rather than a Criminal matter, it's proper that the damages be "the benefit of the bargain", where the breacher has to make whole the other party. I for one would not have to face jail time if I need to break my lease. On the other hand, if my landlord evicts me because someone else wants to pay a higher rent for my place, I should get either "specific performance" (the landlord is forced to honor the lease as written) or my "benefit of the bargain" damages (my moving costs, incidental / consequential damages such as lost income from the time spent house-hunting, and (if the new rent is higher) paying the difference between my old rent and the rent at my new place. If you believe the spin, that those responsible for preventing, causing, creating, and reporting on "the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression" and how not one of these offenders has been arrested, prosecuted, jailed, or fined, then nothing has changed. The game remains the same. Something like this can only happen in a country where there is no Rule of Law, therefore no crimes too big or small can be committed. Where nothing is prohibited, everything is allowed. God Bless America (but I am beginning to appreciate President Obama's minister, the one who said "God Damn America." I am starting to get where he might have been coming from. To some extent before but to a