Bush at one time warned against, but by 2002 he'd jumped fully onto the bandwagon, to the point where he later started taking credit himself for the boom (that preceded the bust).
I'm no expert either, but imo the crisis was caused by a combination of too much intervention on the one hand and too little (of a different sort) on the other.
If you're interested, that really is a fascinating link I posted. Most of us regular Joes had probably never even heard of the derivatives market before 2008. And it's failure was instrumental in the crash. It was,as I recall, completely unregulated at the time, with trillions of dollars in play.
The derivative markets have been accused for their alleged role in the financial crisis of 2007-2010. Specifically the Credit Default Swaps CDSs, financial instruments traded on the over the counter derivatives markets, and the Mortgage Backed Securities MBSs, a type of securitized debt. The leveraged operations are said to have generated an "irrational appeal" for risk taking, and the lack of clearing obligations also appeared as very damaging for the balance of the market. The G-20’s proposals for financial markets reform all stress these points, and suggest:
higher capital standards
stronger risk management
international surveillance of financial firms' operations
dynamic capital rules.
