When you look at the boom in the housing market, don't forget that what you're seeing is the second leg of financial deregulation.
That's comforting, in a way, because it says what's happening with household debt and house prices is part of a once-only adjustment in response to a change in the economy's structure.
But it's also discomforting because, if you remember, the first leg of financial deregulation in the 1980s ended up with wildly excessive borrowing for investment in commercial property.
Some big businesses fell over, some banks got wobbly and the whole sorry episode contributed…
