IT IS DIFFICULTTO IMAGINE A MORE INEPT BEGINNING

摘要

Housing has been the hardest hit, of all industry sectors, by the recession. Inrnpart this reflected the fact that it was a housing market problem - albeit in America -that triggered the downturn in 2007. The Northern Rock crisis that autumn made it very clear that the contagion of the American sub-prime market collapse had spread and would be felt just as harshly here. The subsequent abrupt shift in mortgage lending policies - from feast to famine - accelerated the process and by the spring of 2008 consumer confidence had collapsed and the market was in freefall. The consequences have been dire.