The stupid, it burns.
Anyone who thinks the housing bubble and subsequent recession were caused by Bill Clinton or the Democrats doesn’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about. For starters, the banks covered under the Community Reinvestment Act account for less than a third of subprime mortgages. Same for Fannie and Freddie. The vast vast majority of risky loans were made by institutions that fell outside these regulations. The bubble and crash was a combination of ballooning credit, unscrupulous lenders, often stupid consumers, greedsters on Wall Street who thought they were invincible and created all kinds of securities that were essentially black holes, accounting rules that encouraged banks to create insane derivatives to get around reporting requirements and a government that couldn’t be bothered to ask if what was obviously an unsustainable boom might need a bit cooling down.
Here’s the thing about global recessions. They’re very complicated. Anyone who thinks the whole thing can be boiled down to Barney Frank or George Bush is not being honest, or just isn’t very smart. And anyone who thinks that an epic financial crisis is the result of people going Gault is nothing short of a moron. You may now start mindlessly attacking me.
