The upward spiral of asset prices and balance sheets that drove the US boom was even more pronounced in Europe. Between 2001 and 2006, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, the UK, France, Ireland and Spain all experienced real estate booms more severe than those that energized the United States. In Ireland and Spain, the combination of credit growth and house price inflation was truly explosive. It was these credit-fueled booms that drove the trade and fiscal imbalances of the eurozone, rather than the other way around. The huge influx of credit from all over the world to a hot spot like
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