From The BBC News

US President George W Bush has explained the credit crunch savaging US financial markets by saying “Wall Street got drunk”.

“It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover,” Mr Bush said at a private political fundraiser in Houston, Texas.

Members of the media were not invited and the audience had been asked to turn off their cameras.

But somebody recorded the statement on a mobile phone video camera and it was posted on the internet.

‘Fancy instruments’

The comment was made on Friday and by Tuesday had found its way on to the internet.

“The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?” the president asks in the clip.

The White House has issued a more prosaic explanation of his comments.

“He has said before that Wall Street was dealing with very complex financial instruments and that the markets didn’t fully understand the risks that those instruments posed to the system,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

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