The housing and financial mess happened under Bush, but were caused by Democrats in Fannie, Freddie, HUD, Justice snd for the last 2 years in the House and Senate. Bush expressed concern, but Barney Frank famously said “There is nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddie”.
IIRC, during Bush's presidency there were three efforts by Republicans in Congress to deal with the worst aspects of the Community Reinvestment Act. All of these efforts were defeated by the Democrats, probably with some assistance from the RINO contingent.
***The housing and financial mess happened under Bush,***
Actually, if you go back to the last year of the Clinton presidency, you will see the stock market going up-up-up (due to the Reagan-Bush policies)! Then in March or April it stalled then went into free fall and Clinton did nothing to stop it.
On 9-11 the Twin Towers were destroyed and the stock market went into another rough ride. It has been up-down since.
The housing and financial mess started under CARTER the Incompetent with the Community Reinvestment Act. Let’s not forget the 21% interest rates, the foreclosures of homes and businesses, and the failure of banks and credit unions at that time.