I’m currently reading Paul Sperry’s “The Great American Bank Robbery.” Sperry puts the lion’s share of the blame on Bill Clinton. While he does not absolve Bush II of some sins, he accuses Clinton of starting the whole mess under the guidelines of the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act). Bush didn’t help by trying to relax some regulations, but he also tried to reform the FMs and was resisted by the Dems. But no CRA, no election of Clinton, and the financial crisis would never have happened. Tom Sowell’s book “The Housing Boom And Bust” mostly arrives at the same conclusions as Sperry. Clinton and his AG Janet Reno the arch-criminals here.
We bought our 2nd house in the middle of the Clinton era, and looking back on it, there were warning signs of what was to come with the ease with which we got that mortgage, as compared to our first house in the mid-80s. We were flabbergasted that they almost would have made the loan on the 2nd house on my income alone; we would have never considered it. Unfortunately much of the U.S., including all of Washington DC, isn’t as financially prudent as we are.