So much money was pumped into the economy and so lax were regulators that one leading American bank advertised its loans with the slogan “qualified at birth” – a clear indication that there were, in effect, no credit standards. In a sense, the strategy worked: a housing bubble fed a consumption boom, as savings rates plummeted to zero. The economic weaknesses were simply being postponed to some future date; the Bush administration hoped that the day of reckoning would come after November 2008.  Instead, things began to unravel in August 2007.
如此众多的钱涌入经济之中，而监管又如此不力，乃至于一家美国大银行的贷款广告是“生而合格”。这清楚地表明了实际上就没有什么信贷标准。在某种意义上，这一战略奏效了。房地产泡沫带动了消费繁荣，而储蓄率降到零。经济弱点只不过是被推迟到以后。布什政府希望清算的日子在2008年11月以后到来。相反，2007年8月局面就显现出来了。