MudPie
New member
"President Clinton's tenure was characterized by economic prosperity and financial deregulation, which in many ways set the stage for the excesses of recent years. Among his biggest strokes of free-wheeling capitalism was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods."
I'll add to this...
Under Clinton, GSEs (Fannie and Freddie) increased their acquisition of high risk mortgage backed securities from 30-50% which at the time seemed like the smart thing to do. Bush (ill advised) bumped it up to 55%. Then the bottom fell out and the rest is history.
Hey, Barney Frank: The Government Did Cause the Housing Crisis - The Atlantic
For the Bush blamers... read it and weep.
Setting the Record Straight: Six Years of Unheeded Warnings for GSE Reform
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