1. The last recessionwas caused by the Democrats encouraging banks to make sub-prime loans, not that the Republicans not the banks objected.
2. The current slowdown is connected with the disruption on world trade caused by the Americans with great help from the British and the Chinese. Whether the disruption of world trade is a bad thing is yet to be seen. According to standard economic theory trade is good and helps all, but many are skeptical (particularly American workers who have trouble competing with low wage countries), and as of late, conventional economic theory has been very good at predicting or explaining economic behavior.