[stephenjohnbanker]

” Bush’s hands were all over the (his term) housing bubble and he could have stopped it in time ~ mid 2004 but the actions required would not have been popular. By late 2005 house prices had risen too- high too-fast to result in anything but disaster. “

It would not have been popular, to say the least, but it would have stopped the madness. Bush preferred to wring every ounce of political capital he could out of this. He ran from the problem, and then tried like hell to capitalize on it......especially with hispanics. Made me sick.

[sickoflibs]

There is lots of revisionist claims left from 2008 and 2009 about how Bush fought tooth and nail to cut back on risky loans but that no-good Bwany Fwank singlehandedly tied up the entire GOP congress in 2006, all by himself. Forget that 2006 was too late anyway.

If Bush had given a TARP speech in 2004 instead of 2008 calling for Regulations rather than the later bailout there would have been some unhappy investors and home owners and it would have been harder to be re-elected, but the damage would have been a small fraction of what it resulting in by letting the debt and house buying fever to continue.

A small panic from the speech would have stopped it, and many a few regulations would have been passed.

Getting rid of the down payment requirement was stupid.