Buy A House, Give Bin Laden The Finger

Maybe the most predictable part of the current debacle is the attempt to blame Bill Clinton, Democrats, Barney Frank, etc -- usually via some contorted interpretation of policy involving the GSEs during the 1990's. I've noticed that those pushing this most stridently aren't exactly known for their expertise on either economic policy or the financial markets. It's true that neither political party's hands are clean on all this. But look: it's undeniable that a cornerstone of the administration's domestic policy in its first term was -- in concert with the Federal Reserve and to the benefit of Wall Street -- a historic expansion of the homeowner class by any means necessary.

The public face of that policy was a psychological nexus of ownership, religion, and patriotism. Take a few minutes to read this 2003 speech by Bush, which he made in a part of the country that's now a poster child for foreclosures. Here are a few snippets -- and remember, this is all from one speech, and they appear below in the same order they were spoken:

• "It's been my honor to come to a place that's embodiment of the American Dream. See, what we believe is, we believe people in this country ought to be able to work hard and dream big, and realize their dreams."
  
  
• "We just had what we call a roundtable discussion -- it happened to be at a square table. (Laughter.) About home ownership, the idea of people owning a home is part of the American Dream."
  
  
• "When I landed at the airport I met a fellow named Denny Klaseus...Out of the First Church of the Nazarene, he has become a volunteer, see. He has heard the call, the universal call of all religions to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself."
  
  
• "The enemy hit us, on September the 11th, 2001, and that hurt us. It hurt the economy; it hurt the psyche of the American people. But we're a tough people."
  
  
• "Low interest rates has helped the American citizens. It's helped them buy a home. It's helped them refinance if they own a home. It's put more money in circulation, which is good for job creation. Low interest rates makes it easier to buy a home. And home ownership is at near-record highs -- and that's good because we need to be an ownership society in America. We want people owning their own home. If you own your own home, you have a vital stake in the future of this country."
  
  
• "And even though home ownership is at near-record highs, we've got too many of our fellow citizens who happen to be minorities who don't own a home -- 75 percent of the Anglos in America own a home; the minority home ownership in America is below 50 percent. And it seems like to me we've got to do something about it. If it's good for America that people own a home, we want people from all walks of life owning their own home. And so I let out a goal. I said over the next decade, we want there to be 5.5 million new minority home owners."
  
  
• "But here are some of the things that we intend to do and we discussed today earlier. Sometimes people have trouble finding the down payment for a home. It makes them nervous when they hear the down payment. We need to have a down payment fund to help people with down payments if they qualify."
  
  
• "And so we've doubled the amount of money available for community-based programs, faith-based programs -- (applause) -- to be able to brief their parishioners and/or their fellow citizens about the opportunities and the hope and what it takes to be able to purchase a home."
  
  
• "We're overcoming the challenges to our economy. And I also want you to know we're answering the great threats to our security. September the 11th, 2001 moved this country from grief to action."
  
  
• "And we now see the nature of the enemy very clearly. These people are terrorists, cold-blooded killers."
  
  
• "Since the liberation of Iraq, our investigators have found evidence of a clandestine network of biological laboratories, advanced design work on prohibited longer-range missiles, an elaborate campaign to hide illegal programs."

Read the full text here. As they explain this period in U.S. economic history, I suspect future historians will focus on this theme.