Laws Don’t Prevent Crime, They Punish It

The headline is from Barry Ritholtz.  It is something I've been saying for low these months, e.g., here., where I mentioned similar-ish points as BR, but I was reacting to the fact that most of the blogosphere was then complaining about what assholes the bankers/loan sharks/ratings agencies/Fed heads whose name starts with G, etc were/are. My point was that it’s not against the law to be a venal bastard, and that most such will go to great length to avoid jail.

So, if you are an adult, your algorithm should be:
1. Observe bad behavior
2. If there is a law agains it, punish; goto 1.
3. Otherwise, make a law against it; goto 1.

Non-adult behavior is to say oh, we made some laws a while back but the VB's just got around them so that’s not effective.
...Or - maybe laws do prevent crime somewhat.