What policies or legislation (or lack there of) caused the recession?

Also, if tax cuts are the key to get us out of this recession, how did we get here in the first place because the rich have been getting tax cuts for 10 years now, it wasn't until 2009 when the middle class started receiving tax cuts through the stimulus bill that was passed.





I would like real nonpartisans answers if that's possible. Also, please provide some links to whatever policies or legislation that caused this.





Thanks|||The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. General lack of common sense re bank leverage since 2000. Tax cuts during a recession just make the recession worse.|||Regulations mandating that banks give out risky housing loans to people that were more likely to not be able to repay them.





You couple that with government "insurance" for companies if they go under, and you make capital extremely easy to obtain, you got a huge real estate bubble that inevitably bursts.





But nevermind that, the liberal progressives say it was the free market, and that just a few more regulations and controls would of made everything wonderful.|||Government protectionism caused the problem that lead to every recession in the last 100 years. If there was a free market where business had to take responsibility for their actions with no government bail out guarantee's then they would not have taken the risky actions that led to the housing crisis and the latest recession.|||banks were told their risky loans would be insured against loss by the government. tax cuts across the board are half the key. the other half is to cut spending and pay the federal bills. when the government acts responsibly with tax dollars, that creates consumer confidence in the market, which creates jobs and investment. it's quite simple. don't spend what you don't have...|||1- Banks having freedoms to make risky loans with the understanding that they would be bailed out if anyone defaulted on the loans.





2- The government spending money that we don't have.|||There's no longer a wall separating banks from casino gambling.|||Clinton's faulty regulation on banks was what set the whole thing in motion|||30 years of Money grabbing GREEDY POLITICIANS|||There is far more to it than just in the last 10 years. This is something that has been in progress for quite some time now. Since President Richard Nixon took the US off the Gold Standard in 1971, the US has adopted what I refer to as the US Dollar Reserve Strategy. After the Second World War, at the Bretton Woods Conference, the US dollar was accepted as the world's reserve currency and as such was pegged to Gold at a fixed rate of $35/oz. due to massive Vietnam war costs and President Johnson Great Society, the US could no longer honor its agreement. In 1971, when France demanded conversion payment in Gold, the US refused. At this point the US become a fiat currency, not backed by anything other than the full faith and credit of Washington politicos.





What were other countries to do in retaliation? What quickly became evident was there was little they could do. The fact was that international trade was conducted in US dollars as a matter of necessity due to the dominance of US export trade; and as such, nations were forced to have US dollars to transact international trade.





Additionally, the US established agreements with oil producing Middle East countries that oil could only be sold in US dollars. Since energy is a dominant import cost for most nations, this secured the strategic position and requirement that the US dollar would be maintained as the preeminent reserve currency by trading nations.





What this strategy meant to the US was that it could now print money, and effectively export the potential inflationary consequences of its actions. The 1970s were initially marked by dramatic increases in US inflation as the strategy took hold and was implemented. By the time of President Reagan's presidency, the strategy was working thanks to some herculean efforts by Chairman Volker at the Federal Reserve. This well executed strategy is what I refer to as the US Reserve Currency Strategy.





The strategy allowed Regan to implement 'Reaganomics' and his new Supply Side economic policies which launched the longest bull market in US history. Further enhanced by an extremely loose monetary policy under Greenspan, relaxed reserve requirements under Clinton, and tax cuts under George Bush II, the US moved quickly from being the world's richest country to being the world's largest debtor. Historic debt growth was built up without the disease of inflation infecting the US economy. This is explained by inflation that was effectively exported whenever increasing levels of US dollars were printed by the US Treasury. Any threat to this strategy was rapidly challenged by US military power. As an example, when Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, decided to sell Iraq oil denominated in Euros, he was invaded by US forces three months later and removed from power. When Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wanted gold in exchange for Libyan oil, he almost immediately found himself the target of US planned military intervention. Presently, oil is still sold only in US dollars, but more and more trade deals are being negotiated between China and its trading partners. This is a serious threat to the US and the US Dollar Reserve Strategy. One of the reasons the US Reserve Strategy has worked for as long as it has, is because there was an incentive by other countries to sterilize the US dollars they received. This, in the case of Asia, was because of the Asian Mercantile Strategy they were executing. By sterilizing US dollars, they held down their currency's exchange rate, which helped their exports though creating potential domestic inflation. Until recently, these inflation pressures have been manageable.