McKenna: Economy a bipartisan mess

The crisis in the financial markets is a “bipartisan mess” involving both of Barack Obama’s immediate predecessors, Congresses over the past 10 years and people who thought housing prices would always go up, Washington’s attorney general said Thursday.

Rob McKenna told the Washington Realtors Conference that different people spotted parts of the problems in recent years. He and the Iowa attorney general tried in 2006 to get tighter regulations and prevent fraud in the subprime loans process, and several states made attempts at consumer protection.

But the economic crisis was the result of “a confluence of events,” he said, including an economic boom fueled by debt, lenders losing their connection with borrowers and home buyers being enticed by unaffordable mortgages.

“I didn’t see the whole picture. None of us did,” McKenna said. “No one predicted foreclosure begets foreclosure.”