Hmmm… all of this happening around the same time UK politicians align with our noble president (yes, I don’t feel it deserves a capital P anymore!) to strike up illegitimate wars for power. If our housing bubble had never happened, then we would have been leading the largest global recession in history at the beginning of bush’s first term. Tough to get illegitimate wars approved when the people are pissed off and worried about how they are going to pay for their accustomed lifestyles. The only difference between the UK situation and the eerily similar one in our economy is that nobody involved in perpetuating it here (i.e. Greenspan) will ever admit to it.