President George W. Bush has an explanation for the housing-market meltdown that has thrown the global economy into turmoil: Wall Street got drunk.
“There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk,” Bush said at a private event in Houston on Friday. “It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?”
Bush’s comments were recorded on a cellular telephone camera and posted to the YouTube Internet site on Tuesday.
He was in Houston to raise money for Republican congressional candidate Pete Olson, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson.
The video shows Bush joking with a friendly crowd and musing about his life when he leaves the White House in January. “We’ve got a housing issue,” Bush said. “Not in Houston, evidently not in Dallas, because Laura’s over there trying to buy a house today.”
Bush explained that his wife no longer wished to live in rural Crawford, Texas.
“I like Crawford, unfortunately after eight years of asking her to sacrifice, I am no longer the decision maker,” he said. ”I did tell her, ’Honey, we’ve been on government pay now for 14 years, go slow.”’
Bush, 62, was arrested for drunken driving when he was 30 and gave up alcohol when he turned 40.
