Infrastructure wouldn't really help.  Infrastructure jobs would be extremely temporary... and infrastructure building jobs are temporary.  The lack of demand really isn't due to a lack of pay.  It's just due to a mindset change in people to be more fiscally conservatvie and responsible in general.  Nobody wants to build their wealth on debt anymore.

Can you point to actual bank deregulation measures Bush passed in regard to banks that you think hurt?

He used a power that presidents have and stopped enforcing regulation. Presidents do have that power. Basically he let anything go.

Do you have any evidence for this, or just a crazy conspiracy theory?

Oh wait, here is the Bush administration talking about regulation in 2003

exempting investment banks from capital requirements and intervening to over-rule state level anti-predatory lending laws by claiming federal jurisdiction (which just happened to be fine with the quality of Alt-A and subprime loans).

His Administration's passive contribution was allowing the whole danged overheated shadow banking system to continue down its perilous course, and this I think was due to his political belief system (he saw what he wanted to see because it conformed to his ideology to the point that his Administration and he personally called it "The Ownership Society").

again, can you offer any proof of this.

It's not a claim I can find any actual suggestion of...

As far as I can tell derivitives were deregulated under Clinton in the Commodities Futures Modernization act of 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Modernization_Act_of_2000

A little talked about bill that deregulated credit Default swaps and made it way easiesr for them to get rubber stamped good grades and relaxed capital requirements on banks.

I think what your seeing as "Bush not enforcing credit default swap regulations" is actually in fact the CFMA coming into full effect.

By the way i've got no idea wherer it was republicans or democrats who supported the CFMA or both.  I assume there had to be at least  some democrats due to the republicans getting decimated in the midterm elections.

Am I correct in saying that (like with the banks) many republicans opposed the auto industry bailout or criticised it after it happened? If nothing had been done the knock-on effect (espcially in the short-term) would have been horrific. Thousands (hundred of thousands to millions? not too sure how many exactly the american big 3 employs). The chain reaction on other industry and the rest of the economy as a whole as all of those workers became jobless would have pretty much sent the US into a depression.

They all may be shitty but are not the same. Dems will not ruin SS, Medicare, Etc.. there is a difference. I understand your point but every president can't do what he wants usually because congress makes the decisions more then he does. they  have all the power. So if the president proposes something, If the congress don't pass it. There goes his promise. Power is split up in our government for a reason

You are the best user on the site. ^_^

I want to know how are people going to feel on the republican side when Obama is reelected. He's got a 3:1 or 4:1 chance of winning the election and there are only about 5% of 'unsure' voters out there able to switch candidates.