Are you sitting down?  You should be sitting down.  This is stunning and unexpected news.  Apparently, pressure from banks caused the Bush administration to ease up on regulating certain types of mortgages.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

I know!  Apparently, sometimes, Republicans side with businesses.  Next you’ll be telling me Democrats are in the pocket of labor unions.  But wait, there is more fail:

“These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages,” David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

And more:

“An open market will mean that different institutions will develop different methodologies for achieving this goal,” Joseph Polizzotto, counsel to now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, told U.S. regulators in a March 2006.

Remember Countrywide?

Countrywide Financial Corp., at the time the nation’s largest mortgage lender, agreed. The proposal “appears excessive and will inhibit future innovation in the marketplace,” said Mary Jane Seebach, managing director of public affairs.

So yes, here we have proof once and for all that the market will regulate itself, and the nation and its economy will benefit as a result of lessened government intervention.  Also, lobbyists are soulless reptiles who will destroy us all.  I hereby designate December 27th as National Kick A Lobbyist Day.