Karen: Study the "Glass Steagall Act of 1933" and the purpose it served for "Regulating" Lending Institutions and Investment Banks during the Great Depression. During the Clinton Administration the GSA of 1933 was repealled in 1999. The "Deregulation" of Banks and Wall Street is what caused the Great Depression in the late 1920's and the GSA was put into place so another Great Depression would never happen again for the same reasons. In 1999 many Republicans in Congress, particularly John McCain, warned that within 10 years this country would see another Great Depression. Sorry Karen, but this mess was Clintons
Brainstorm.

Karen, you're obviously not very smart and when will you idiots quit blaming Bush for everything. Let me help you since you don't have a clue what you're talking about. The reason the economy is a mess is because your Democrat fool buddies put pressure on mortgage lending institutions to lend money to people without verifying income or credit, so all those poor people who couldn't buy a house could experience the American dream of owning their own house. Are you so stupid you haven't figured that out yet. Do you ever watch any news channels. On two different documented occasions the Bush administration warned the financial institutions and idiots promoting this activity that it was financial suicide and just a matter of time before this whole situation came tumbling down. Now that's the facts fool. Your Democrat buddies wanted to give those poor people a chance to get ahead, which was without question the most ignorant thing any financial institution could ever do, loaning money to people who had bad credit and most certainly insufficient income to buy the houses they were buying, but the consequence was those banks and lending institutions would be blackballed by our government. This has been public information for over a year now fool, where have you been?

Why start or stop at the “Bush days”. There is and has been plenty of money grabbing, low life living the high life to go around.

Really, blame Bush again for a greedy stock broker who was busted under the Bush admin, yet let to fly under the radar from the 70s (as stated in the article you just read). What about any other administration since the 70s, what about the board members, the investors, SEC, and the many more people directly involved in investments, that firm, etc. The president of the US has TOO much to do to look into every business owner in the nation!

People wake up...there is a long line of frauds in our country. banks, credit card companies (talk about rip offs), insurance companies, pharmeceutical corporations...government officials. Can you say capitalism...can you say United snakes of america?

Karen......
Maybe you should also go back to your President Billy Boy Clinton..........he is the one who started this terrible mortgage business problem, because it was HIS administration that started telling banks to "drop their standards" if someone wanted a mortgage and couldn't qualify.....it was HIS administration that started all of these foreclosures that people are now finding themselves in. Everyone thought that they could take that little bit higher mortgage payment for a few years, then put their homes on the market and sell, before their 5 year balloon payment caught them with their pants down. Well, when the real estate market went to hell, those people were caught in a situation where they couldn't sell, couldn't pay their balloon payments on those mortgages.....and unfortunately, are losing their homes. So, rather than start hammering Bush...look back a little further to your President Clinton...you know, the one who lied to the world on TV....
stating, " I did not have sexual relations with that woman."

You gonna say the same for Obama who thinks no laws apply to him? Who has broken the constitution, bankruptcy laws, and that the Commander in Chief involves protecting our military- not letting them twist in the wind??

you are a fool,, this goes way past Bush,, in fact its much closer the partyboy Clinton's era, when this spiral started.. you're blinded by your ignorance and prejudice,,,,,,

Karen, You have got to be kidding. The Bush Administration, Madoff had been doing this since the 70's. Yep it's all Bush's fault. I guess that cheater president before him was all over it, huh? Yeah he was all over a couple things...the dna proved it.

The Bush Crowd kept your a$$ safe, doofus. Why don't we investigate the chicago thugs who are in the white house and calling all the shots now? Why don't we investigate the Corrupt Clintons and Barney Frank etc etc etc. You want to fight corruption? Clean up your own act before braying about others.

Karen: You show your true ignorance! These schemes if you know how to read started back in the 1970'3. So according to you let's go get Johnson oh but we can't forget our good buddy that made the 1980's a nightmare Jimmy Ford. If you actual followed politics instead of just Bush bashing you would know the loan deregulations happened under good old BJ Boy Clinton! President Bush and Republicans entered a bill to try to stop the loans, but the Dem's who were in charge wouldn't have it!! So get your facts straight! Oh, by the way why is it everyone's fault but the stupid ignorant people that bought things they knew they couldn't afford!! We should actually take them all out tar and feather them then make them work to pay it all back!

Unfortunitly alot of this stuff didn't start under Bush it started under Clinton or even father back under Carter , Regan and G.H.W. Bush

Jamie,

What was the legislation or order that repealed that act?

This had nothing to do with what many of you are referring to with Clinton's policies or the CRA. With a miniscule effort to research the facts, it can be found that most loans which are defaulting are only a few years old.

The fuel to this fire was the repackaging of mortgage loans to sell to investors through Wall Street. The policies of Clinton's era were designed for lower income families. By conducting the aforementioned research, it can be found most individuals walking away and defaulting on their homes are more highly educated and compensated individuals.

It was the abuse / agressive sales pitch of mortgages typically utilized for investment properties for primary residences which artificially inflated home prices (ARM's, interest only, etc). By lowering payments on overpriced homes, realtors and lenders could put individuals into homes that they otherwise could not afford by manipulating monthly payments - the method by which most Americans foolishly make purchasing decisions.

One example is a short sale for a property sold at $327k in 2/2008 which was 100% financed - no down payment. This sale occurred well after trouble became evident. Shame on the buyers, but shame on the lender who approved this mortgage too - two parties sign on the dotted line.

The above loan had nothing to do with Clinton era policies but a very strong weakness of our economic systems - greed.

This is not about Bush this happened long before either Bush was elected.

Karen, the financial mess we are in actually has its basis in the administration of FDR who started us down the slippery slope to socialism which, in turn, because of its profound financial immorality, destroyed the financial integrity of our nation.

Since FDR, anything goes if you can get away with it, so, the greedy crooks on Wall Street, in the Federal Reserve and in the federal government have all been busy over many years exploring the limits of mega theft possible from the dazed and stupefied citizenry of this thoroughly miseducated nation.

I thought we would have reached the point of patriot revolution long before now, but it would appear that we still have a distance yet to go.

Our evil public school system has done its job well in turning most of us into mindless boobs easily led into anything benefiting the corrupt elite regardless of how destructive to the vital interests of everyone else.

And when their decadent system eventually collapses as collapse it must, great will be the fall thereof. I doubt that all the financial and political mega criminals will pay with their lives for destroying our nation because some are too well hidden, but many should and will.

If you are not too old, you will see it all play out right before your amazed eyes. Read Dr. Ron Paul to understand the dynamics at play in all this better.

Enron was on Bush"s watch as was 9/11 in 2001. Bush's watch of 8 years was blind, deaf and dumb. Guess what? Enron was also present in the "secret "energy meeting with Cheney.

WHY IS IT THAT REP ALWAYS BLAME EVERYTHING ON DEMS EVEN IF THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, I AM BEGINNING TO THINK THAT REPS SHOULD ALL BE PUT IN A MENTAL HOSPITAL, YOU ALL THINK YOU ARE PERFECT AND THAT DEMS MADE THIS MESS WE ARE IN, YOU JUMP FROM CLINTON TO OBAMA, WHAT ABOUT THOSE 8 HORRIBLE YEARS OF BUSH DUMB ASS.