| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Property sales | |
| Posted by: | Tom Pike | |
| Date/Time: | 19/03/08 19:10:00 |
| "Mr Brown and his friends are largely to blame." For what, exactly? If house prices are overvalued because of an irrational belief that they only increase, then a price correction would be a healthy outcome, especially if it is not associated with soaring interest rates like last time. And I'm not sure any government could successfully manage house-price expectations. There was some effort from Brown to get longer term mortgages in to smooth out the effects of the booms and busts, but you can't force people to take a longer view. At least the UK has been spared the proliferation of ninja (no-income, no-job) mortgages that has brought the US mortgage industry to its knees. In fact if I had to apportion blame anywhere, it would be to Bush in allowing the US banks to wreck what was one of the most rational home financing systems in the world, based on fixed-rate, full-term, renegotiable mortgages. Unregulated capitalism, with its voracious appetite for increased profits, is chewing itself up while leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill. |