" I work in financial services and really don't remember Bush trying to stop the mortgage crises or worse still the credit default swaps. " I did too and still do. Bush did sound the alarms... just not forceful enough. He was also pushing his liberal "ownership society" ideas. But he did not have support in Congress to pull back on subprime lending and the Wall Street recklessness. At the time all the elites were laughing at people like Peter Schiff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgRGBNekFIw