Sorry but the elites are not a single group. I work in the financial sector and some elites were pushing the go-go mortgage bond market. But actuaries and others in the professional sector were not unilaterally please with credit default swaps etc. Again where I work our company avoided the mortgage bonds. So did my local bank (Valley National in NY-NJ). Nor do I remember Bush sounding the alarm you suggest. Please tell me exactly what Bush said (and no I am not going to listen to peter schiff - a clear sentence or two is enough. Bush was worried about Fannie Mae but that we not the cause of the crisis.