Wow what a cool trick ! <| sep |> Because many small banks ceased to exist , were acquired by the big ones and those had a good run in the last few years . The big banks actually lost assets in 200820092010 , if you exclude mergers . And assets is just a measure , you need to realize that having assets is good , means if they screw up they have collateral to pay up . What banks did before 2008 was having almost no assets , they would have leveraged positions many times what they were worth . Lehmann was leveraged 50 to 1 if I remember correctly . That created enormous profits when the market went up but it went belly up just as quick when it went down . That shit ' s gone , banks are well capitalized now . And the industry as a whole lost a lot more in the crash . Goldman Sachs had 0 bonuses for 3 years after the crisis I think , many offices closed and people fired , and the regulation has squeezed margins , comp and has changed banks from exciting risk takers into boring regulated utilities not completely , but moved towards that . Trust me , nobody in investment banking thinks things are better now , most people realize pre 2008 was as good as it got in their careers . The individuals can ' t make as much cash as before . And that ' s how it should be . It can always be better but claiming the banks profited from the crash is reaching .