In the early oughts, I saw houses in my community going up in price to 2x-3x what the people who currently lived in them could afford to pay. Sold my house a little bit after the peak and the proceeds have helped support my life style ever since. Anyone with three functioning neurons who was not part of the con should have seen the bubble for what it was.
Was Dubya one of the conned or part of the con? Dunno, but I do believe that what could have precluded the crash of 2007-8 would be for him to go on the record in 2004 to the effect that any institution whose portfolio was heavy in mortgage-backed securities was on its own. That “bailout” was a word that he would henceforth use only to describe what his dad did every birthday. (Edit: If Obama had voted against the bailouts, I may very well have voted for him.)
Well, what we have now is financial regulation that not only does not break up the TBTF banks, it defines and solidifies their position. Kind of like a cure for HIV that involves infecting the patient with Ebola. Can’t blame conservatives or libertarians for it, either.
