In other words, it's all Bill Clinton's fault. Right. The Republicans continue to pin all of this on Clinton and the poor. Clinton most certainly helped promote lending policies that helped poor minorities who were previously blocked out of the system though to lay blame on that is an extreme stretch. Again, it wasn't the poor who decided to repackage those loans and offer high returns, cashing in with bonus money at each step. It wasn't the poor who decided to hand out liar loans, again making a healthy commission for the sale. It wasn't the poor who fed the commercial real estate boom. It wasn't the poor who chose not to provide traditional oversight or ask questions about over-extended banks. The scope of the credit crisis is so much larger than offering fair access to loans.
In the coming months as the losses mount and the crisis deepens - and it will most certainly get worse - the Republican response will be precisely what Bush is promoting as he's ushered out the door. The GOP approach has failed completely but that's not going to stop them from attempting to throw the blame on the Democrats and the poor. To accept their theory is to ignore the trillions sold around the globe and millions paid out to Wall Street along the way. As on other subjects, Bush has nothing so is hoping that "the future" will somehow absolve him of any guilt on this failure.
As he leaves office, Bush said he felt responsible for the economic downturn because it's occurring on his watch, but he added: "I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so" before he became president.Um, no. I'm pretty sure Americans do, in fact, have an understanding. It's Bush that has been oblivious to the problem. They're also pretty clear that the over-leveraging was the way Wall Street wanted it and the way the Republicans wanted it to be. That's what happens when a government fails to provide proper guidance and hands over the job to business. Bush really was the CEO president, but just not the CEO for the US. He has been the CEO for big business lobbyists.
He said he would like to see "instant liquidity" in the markets given the extent of the financial rescue plan, yet he understands that fear has paralyzed the markets.
"It is hard for the average citizen to understand how frozen the system became and how over-leveraged the system became," Bush said. "And so what we're watching is the de-leveraging of our financial markets, which is obviously affecting the growth of the economy."
