The explosion of the housing bubble took place entirely during a GOP Presidency and Congress.
And yeah, there were a lot of Fannie and Freddie shenanigans with the Dems.
But all the White House would have needed to do in, say, early '05, was to repeatedly make it clear that housing prices were getting way out of touch with fundamentals, and that investing in mortgage backed instruments was entirely at your own risk.
Didn't do that, did they? They wanted to keep the building boom going to artificially inflate the economic stats.
“But all the White House would have needed to do in, say, early ‘05, was to repeatedly make it clear that housing prices were getting way out of touch with fundamentals, and that investing in mortgage backed instruments was entirely at your own risk.”
They did; they did even more than that and they submitted a plan to end the accumulation of the virus in Freddie and Fannie, which, with their institutional size were the enablers of the real estate bubble. The plan made it out of committee in the Senate and lost in a full Senate vote - all the GOP for it and all the Dims voted against it. That was just one of a set of similar efforts that began in 2000 and again in 2003; when Greenspan told everyone that the continued growth of Freddie and Fannie and the continued spread between their assets and liabilities (taking on fundamentally unsound mortgages) was going to create a systemic failure. Twelve times Bush emissaries met with Congressional reps with Freddie and Fannie oversight, between 2000 and 2005, seeking to reign-in Freddie and Fannie and each time Freddie and Fannie’s enablers, led by FranknDodd obstructed the reforms.
You misunderstand. The only point of my exchange with that Freeper mysterio was to illustrate I at this time support the bailout on its merits and NOT on who is on watch.
Getting to your post, BOTH parties are completely, entirely to blame for this entire episode. Both are to blame up to their necks. Both complicit. Both embraced every new debt bubble they could find to fill budgetary coffer and campaign contribution war chests.
Is Bush to blame for this. Not alone, no way. Is Clinton? He has some. 20 years of politicians loosening the reigns on Wall Street greeed? All of these bastards are complicit. Every stinking one of them.
I laugh at every post saying, “the Democrats own this crisis” or “the Republicans caused this crisis” or “Greenspan caused this.”
Yes, ALL OF THE ABOVE. Not exclusive. Most all of these greedy pigs in government and on Wall Street caused this and even worse, they embraced it. And many probably knew they were buildling a house of cards, but figured they could duck out before the crash and leave some other dumb bastard holding the back and taking the fall for it.
So when I answered mysterio that this is happening on the Democrats watch, it most certainly sure as shine is! AND the Republicans. They are both in this crisis up to their necks, and if there was ever a situation in modern American life I would address with the label “quagmire”, this Gordian Knot is it!
THEY ARE ALL TO BLAME.