Former President George W. Bush Addresses the Industry at Five Star

Former President George W. Bush addressed an audience of participants throughout the default servicing industry Tuesday morning at the Five Star Default Servicing Conference and Expo.

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Touching on a few challenging moments in his presidency, including the September 11 attack, Bush said, “You have to surround yourself with people whose judgment you trust.”

He also told the audience that as a leader in a crisis it is “important to project calm,” and then “reassure people you have a plan.”

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Bush discussed the difficult decision to administer TARP in 2008.

When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Bush he would likely oversee a recession the size of the Great Depression, Bush said he knew he needed to take action despite his belief in letting the market resolve itself.

“TARP was a painful decision,” he said, adding that he believes the decision did allow the country did avoid a depression.

“I can’t really say with certainty we would have had one, but I can say with certainty we didn’t have one,” he said.

After Bush’s address, during a brief, question and answer session, Five Star’s CEO Ed Delgado asked Bush if he thinks the market has been overregulated.

Overregulation and lack of certainty causes capital to sit on the sidelines, said Bush. And when capital sits on the sidelines, there won’t be any jobs.

Bush announced that he is working on a book on how to grow the economy, adding that the way to do this is to “energize the private sector.”