Blame Clinton (and Carter) for forcing lending institutions to give mortgage loans to risky families through the Community Reinvestment Act.
Blame government (in general) for keeping interest rates so low as to further flood the markets with cheap money which was nothing but a band-aid against the tech-burst to encourage new growth.
Blame Democrats and Republicans for a lack of oversight and regulation on the derivatives market and for naked short selling (although, a true capitalist would just let the problem fix itself, which it would, in time, but with some awful growing pains).
Blame capitalists for their greed and manipulation of the ledger (bad liquidity) that added fuel to the fire.
And it was actually George Bush, in 2003, that tried to correct the situation by bring Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac back in line because the lending institutions were not properly hedging the loans or keeping enough capital on hand (capital reserve requirement). Oh yah, this was blocked by the Democrats in the House.
But blame Bush? No, thanks.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2008 11:38AM by The Forsaken.