I thought it was Bush's fault??

[JD8]

The fact is you're trying to rewrite history to say that Bush was not only not at fault for the Great Recession, the fault lies with the Clinton administration. Ingoing the fact that the meltdown/recession happened well into Bush's second term. Ignoring the fact that Bush did nothing to stop the meltdown/recession. Ignoring the fact that Bush's policies greatly contributed to the meltdown/recession. Are those the facts to which you refer?

Well.... what I said was......

"I don't think anyone can argue that the Clinton administration was responsible for the pressure on Freddie and Fannie to extend subprime loans. In which their involvement in low income housing was previously mandated by a democratic congress under Bush Sr."

Get back to me when you can discuss these points. That and what you think Bush could've done when these loans went to ART?

 

[Ace_on_the_Turn]

Well.... what I said was......

"I don't think anyone can argue that the Clinton administration was responsible for the pressure on Freddie and Fannie to extend subprime loans. In which their involvement in low income housing was previously mandated by a democratic congress under Bush Sr."

Get back to me when you can discuss these points. That and what you think Bush could've done when these loans went to ART?

Yes, there is no question that changes made to the Community Reinvestment Act under Clinton helped create a more, how shall we say, lack approach to mortgage lending. And that was one of the causes leading up to the housing crisis. But that did not cause the meltdown. At the heart of the meltdown was, of course, the collapse of the subprime mortgage market. When Bush took office the subprime market was a small, almost insignificant, percent of the mortgage business. During the early 00's more and more money flowed into the market looking for a higher rate of return then traditional investments were offering. Subprime lending soared. Zero down loans, adjustable rate loans all rose. Now, who was watching over Wall St. as MBS's sky-rocked? No one, it seems. Bush fiddled as Rome burned. With even a small amount of true oversight the crisis would have never happened.

These experts, from both political parties, say Bush's early personnel choices and overarching antipathy toward regulation created a climate that, if it did not trigger the turmoil, almost certainly aggravated it. The president's first two Treasury secretaries, for instance, lacked the kind of Wall Street expertise that might have helped them raise red flags about the use of complex financial instruments at the heart of the crisis.

To his credit, Bush accurately foresaw the danger posed by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and began calling as early as 2002 for greater regulation of the mortgage giants. But experts say the administration could have done even more to curb excesses in the housing market, and much more to police Wall Street, which transmitted those problems around the world.

Today, even those sympathetic to Bush say he cannot disentangle himself from a home-lending industry run amok or a banking industry that mortgaged its future on toxic loans.

"The crisis definitely happened on their watch," said Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard University who advises the Republican presidential candidate John McCain. "This is eight years into the Bush administration. There was a lot of time to deal with it."

I'm not saying Bush was entirely to blame. No single person/administration is to blame. But, it happened 6+ years into Bush's presidency. It was not a earthquake that hit without warning, it was a hurricane that had lots of early warnings. Bush just happened to ignore the warnings.