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[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

"Every American should own a home..." Remember that? His "ownership society," or some crap like that? He doubled down on Clinton's silly effort to make shit borrowers into decent credit risks. But unlike Clinton, who had altruistic but naive aims, Bush knew better. At the time he was pushing for more home ownership, it was obvious people were cashing in on home equity to make up for wages they were losing, or to live beyond their means, or to flip homes. It was a lazy, risky, dumb way to to create economic gains and activity in an economy that hadn't been moving much since the tech collapse.

Credit Clinton and Obama for not doing much economically while they were in office. Bubba knew he had a good thing with the tech boom and took a hands off approach. Obama was given a seriously awful situation and stayed a conservative, sensible course where a lot of people in his position, with progressives clamoring for more aggressive interventionist measures might've done a lot more. (It's odd the market should blame so much volatility on "dithering" by Obama. The actual facts show a cautious, nearly Republican approach. The only thing he did to fuck things up a bit was the ACA, and he had no choice on that, as he'd promised it as a centerpiece of his agenda.)

The housing bubble was a bad idea. The equivalent of using the G's Master Card to buy a war was a worse idea and a bigger factor. The housing bubble could have been staved off sooner and to a greater degree if he hadn't already blown his wad on avenging Dad.