===Mexican Peso bailout===
[[Image:ClintonPresident.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Bill Clinton's Presidential cabinet]]
Clinton refered to the Mexican [[bailout]] in his memoirs as, "one of the biggest crisis of my first term", and quotes [[Tom Friedman]] of the ''New York Times'' saying it was the "least popular, least understood, most important foreign policy decision of the Clinton presidency."<ref>''My Life'', Bill Clinton, Knopf, 2004, pp. 641-645. </ref> It was brainchild of Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin and chief economic adviser [[Larry Summers]] who later served President Barack Obama in the same position. Clinton claims it took him 10 minutes to decide on the $20 billion bailout. Polls showed 79% of the American people opposed it, with little support in Congress.
Critics cite the modern bailout culture of the [[Recession of 2008]] as originating with Clinton's Mexican bailout. the modern bailout culture took off under President Bill Clinton. It was allegedly designed to help Mexico. It was $20 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury Dept.s [[Exchange Stabilization Fund]] by [[Executive Order]] that was used. And it was done, not for the Mexican banks sake, but for the big [[Wall Street]] banks, Citibank, Bankers Trust, the others that were over-exposed to risk for loans they made in Mexico. PBS's [[Bill Moyers calls it "[[Crony capitalism]]", "And so the idea got started that Washington would be there with a prop, with a bailout, with a helping hand. And then the balls start rolling down the hill." <ref>[Crony Capitalism,] Moyers and Company, PBS, January 20, 2012. </ref>