President George W. Bush seems to regert the $700 billion Wall Street bailout:
I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary government intervention to unfreeze the credit markets so that we could avoid a major global depression.
Damage done, apology too little and too late. And without mentioning Barack Obama by name, Bush rails against the big government he was only too happy to participate in himself:
The role of government is not to create wealth but to create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive.
As the world recovers, we will face a temptation to replace the risk-and-reward model of the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control. History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much.
Granted that Bush's big government is next to nothing compared with that o
