"Obviously it wasn't that simple and there were other factors at play."UNDERSTATMENT!   See 4 other replies

A lack of Gov't regulation? There's plenty of regulation to go around, it's just focused on the wrong areas. How about some regulation for the Federal Reserve?I think you need to take a look at the Federal Reserve, the Community Reinvestment Act(specifically the changes made to it around 1999), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and also fractional reserve lending. I think you'll have a different perspective on what really created the house of cards(subprime cards). From what I understand the CRA required banks in low income areas to make a percentage of loans to low income folks that would normally not qualify. These were high risk subprime loans the majority of which ended up defaulting once housing prices stopped rising. Those defaults in large part led to the chaos on Wall St . Obviously it wasn't that simple and there were other factors at play. But I think a lot of it was the fault of the federal reserve through instruments like the CRA.   See 4 other replies

You watched this show and that's what you got from it? Bush was right and Frank was obstacle? Every politician in power at the time was quick to take credit for the economic growth and none will admit their fault in it now. Frank wasn't the head of the Financial Committee until 2007 which was long after the train had run off its tracks. You really have to trace a lot of this free-for-all back to Phil Gramm and his genius Gramm-Leach-Bliley act that deregulated the banks. He's had a more recent role as a VP of UBS (the Swiss Bank that facilitated 100B+ of these loans) and McCain's economic advisor until he told homeowners to stop whining.Bush was an enabler...free markets above all. There are plenty of sprinklings of Bush taking credit for all those wonderful housing numbers. The last thing he would ever do is enact regulation against the Wall St. cabal that was keeping him in office. As long as the economy was growing and everybody was fat and happy in their Escalades, swimming pools, and Viking applianced/marble countertop/1,000sqft kitchens all paid for w/ cash out refi's, he was going to get re-elected. I'm getting a mortgage right now and I'm pretty sure it's not a Federal Gov't one. They aren't controlling the banks anymore than the 90's and if you recall it wasn't exactly the worst of times. I'm not exactly shedding tears for those idiots in California signing off on houses that cost 10-15X their salaries but claiming Barney Frank as the cause is a bit ludicrous. Wall St. will always find ways to cheat the system and regulation can't be the end all b/c they're better paid, better motivated, and a hell of a lot smarter than regulators. Wall St. inevitably runs the next greatest thing right off a cliff and the only way to prevent it from another crisis is to actually align their compensation with risk adjusted returns. As shareholders in the banks w/ our 401k's, we rewarded risk more than anything so complain all you want but we caused it.   See 4 other replies

President George Bush tried to initiate a new regulatory department that would take over the puny efforts that congress and HUD made in regulating the mortgage securities but the likes of Barney Frank failed to approve it.
The industry needed government inforced regulations to keep it from becoming the time-bomb it is today (actually, it's an exploded one at this point).
Now due to lack of government regulations, we are left with legislation that is attempting to create government CONTROL, a different and dangerous animal.   See 4 other replies