If radical action was needed, they didn’t need to choose the radical action that was most beneficial to the people who caused the problem in the first place. If you don’t count the top 10% richest people, there was a depression. In the first few years after 2008 more than 100% of the recovery was captured by the top 10%. Median wages have only reached 2008 levels in 2016, and they were still below 2000 levels. If the point of the bank bailout was to save the economy, it failed.
If the collapse of a bank would truly do catastrophic damage to the lives of too many people and that cannot be allowed to happen, then nationalize the bank and oversee the winding down of it’s operations responsibly, allowing everyone time to sever their business with the bank in a non-destructive way. Retroactively separate the commercial and investment banking sides and don’t let the investment creditors eat up all the assets.
And for fuck’s sake, arrest people for fraud they committed.
Think of it like cleaning up after an Earthquake. Step one is to try to save lives, not to make sure the people who intentionally caused the Earthquake profit by doing so.
