In the late 90’s my cat Sammy Davis Junior received a credit card offer in the mail with a pretty good line of credit. Davis Jr declined.
Proving your cat did not succumb to the 90s style greed, narcissism, and hubris which really ratcheted up in the Klintoon 1990s, when people believed the hype about a new economy, new financial metrics, etc. and which caused the stock market bubble.
Greed and hubris, from the home purchasers who wanted to get in on the sure bet even if they had no down payment and couldn’t afford a fixed mortgage (”Flip this house”), to the real estate companies, appraisers, and mortgage brokers very willing to lend (commissions to be made!), to, most importantly, the SOBs on Wall Street who created AAA rated Bonds, many of which are now worthless and causing firms around the globe to collapse.
Of course, many of those fat cats responsible have retired with multimillion dollar packages, and Washington was too stupid (including the Bush administration) to see what was happening.
Now, we have Obama, who would make the situation much, much worse and move us right into socialism.