While the last few years have given me many opportunities to marvel at excesses in the capital markets, in this case the one that elicited my battle cry—“that calls for a memo”—hit the newspapers in England during my last stay. As the Financial Times reported on November 1, 2006: Abbey, the UK’s second-largest home loans provider, has raised the standard amount it will lend homebuyers to five times either their single or joint salaries, eclipsing the traditional borrowing levels of around three and a half times salary. It followed last week’s decision by Bank of Ireland Mortgages and Bristol
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