Bush Hosts Conference on Minority Home Ownership in 2002

This transcript from a White House conference in 2002 might give us an idea about how this whole mortgage crisis started. You may recall Bush's "ownership society." He launches that initiative at this conference in 2002. One interesting statement from his speech as he talked about ways to remove barriers to home ownership such as down payments follows:

The other thing Kirbyjon told me, which I really appreciate, is you don't have to have a lousy home for first-time home buyers. If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else. And I know Kirbyjon. He is what I call a social entrepreneur who is using his platform as a Methodist preacher to improve the neighborhood and the community in which he lives.

On the surface, it seems to be a noble goal that even liberals could back, but like most of Bush's initiatives it had some unintended consequences.

Read the entire transcript on the White House web site.