You've nothing to feel guilty about. You had reasons to leverage some debt out of your major asset. You put thta money to use and you are intending to pay off your debts yourself.

There's no guilt anywhere in that, that I can see.

Maybe you now regret it, but that's you're business isn't it?

I've taken on debts for reasons I thought were great and afterwards found I was wrong. But I just put my head down and paid for my mistake.

At least we are trying to formulate clear thoughts about what has happened and will happen. And we're not just sitting with our mouths open waiting to be spoon fed whatever self-serving propagnda suits the real debtors.

I look forward to reading you comments whenever you contribute.

However, I'm realistic and know that high house prices are not sustainable. If I make a loss, so be it. I own the debt and it will be paid by me, not the taxpayers (eventually). That is the risk you take when you leverage your assets … isn't it?

I agree totally, low house prices are the only solution. Painful though it will be for many people cought in negaitve equity. High house prices are , in the end a social evil. Speculaively high prices are a crime.

I don't agree with one point. Lower property prices (with respect to wages) is NOT bad news for the people down where we live. It might be bad news for the banks (and therefore the people who have to bail them out eventually). The only people that profit (in the end) from high property prices are the banks – well, actually the people that run them, rather than the shareholders.

Of course the report is pure speculation so we will see how it turns out, but I tend to feel that any opinion that is the opposite of what the banks actually need has more chance of being based on the truth.

I think you're being too diplomatic by classifying the banks as an aristocracy. The aristocracy of old recognised there was a social structure that needed to be tactfully maintained. Look after your servants and they would look after you.

Now, a 'plutocracy' conjures up the right image: money grabbing, back stabbing, champagne guzzling. 'I don't get out of bed for less than 6 zeroes. Haw! Haw! Haw!'