Under Clinton we had this thing called "capital gains tax", which taxed the wealth. He raised capital gains taxes and regulated the housing, banking, and financial industries. His administration presided over a massive economic and technological boom. The technology bubble eventually popped, but left behind miles and miles of useful new Internet connection wires and fiberoptic lines, as well as lots of other useful infrastructure. It also largely affected only rich people who had given money to dot-coms which weren't worth much money to start with.

Bush Jr. got rid of most of the "capital gains tax". He used deregulation to preside over a housing and financial boom, where companies did basically immoral things (previously illegal under the Clinton Administration) to make millions. When that bubble popped, most of America was hurt by the immoral things the companies did, and what it left behind was useless to the common man: multi-million dollar McMansions lying empty with million dollar price tags.

Lesson 1: raise capital gains taxes and regulate for a bubble that helps everyone but only hurts the rich (who can afford to lose a few hundred thousand from their millions).

Lesson 2: lower capital gains taxes and deregulate for a bubble which protects the rich but harms the poor, partly through fat bailout funds from the government for the rich (and a big chunk of money comes out of Social Security taxes to pay for it, taxes paid only by poor people and those making under $102,000 a year in wages).

We have this now.