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You are being a bit simplistic, and the correlated factors of the crisis are complex.

Yes the CRA as enforced by Clinton, as well as the loosening of lending standards, contributed.

Government's reaction to the crisis was wrong-headed, and it's no surprise because those in charge were the ones who created the problem.

The reaction of encouraging and funding foreclosures was wrong. Both Bush as initiated, and Obama and re-organized got it entirely wrong.

I can see it in the trenches. The assumption that bailing out the banks was necessary is wrong.

The assumption that allowing and encouraging them to foreclose is wrong.

The HAMP program is a joke.

There is absolutely nothing they did which stabilized anything. I am certain some banking executives, with fat profit margins, can put together a policy paper that shows how important it was for the reaction government gave.

Your basic assumptions are wrong. I see both the financial industry and government as the problem.

The problem arose by virtue of those creating the risk bore no relation to the risk.

Loans are generated by servicers or originators. They were paid a commission irrespective if the loans were collectible. The bigger the loans, the bigger the commissions, irrespective of the grade of the loans. These loans were bundled and fraudulently rated by the compromised rating agencies.

The investments into the investment trusts were often fraudulently transferred into multiple tranches showing over-funding of the investment trusts.

Hedges were done against these trusts so that the investment bankers could prosper no matter what when these became uncollectible.

So once the collapses became inevitable, the banks run to government for bailouts and to reward the banks by foreclosing, collapsing the market further.

Your answer and those of your ilk, "add more regulations and surely the wise regulators would have prevented this." Bullshit. Regulators are bought off by the large financial institutions all the time.

Don't mix insurance with banks. Don't mix commercial lending with investment lending. We hear it all the time. Government is not the answer.

However the response to the crisis is predictable but wrong-headed because you invited the people creating the problem to fix it. They only think about themselves and care nothing about the general economy.