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 2 other replies