There's an interesting, and very long, report on the McKinsey website about deleveraging debt in global markets. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/debt_and_deleveraging/index.asp
Somethings that caught my eye:
The authors also suggest that the preferential treatment of mortgage debt by the tax system is one of the contributory factors, and that this should be reformed. Given the discussions about negative gearing and taxing property that crop up around here, I can't see that going down well.
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/debt_and_deleveraging/index.asp
Somethings that caught my eye:
- Total debt (government, private, corporate) debt in the UK is 450% of GDP - the highest of any mature economy they looked at.
- Financial crises tend to run through a six to eight year cycle. A couple of years of recession, followed by five or six years of delveraging of debts.
- Growth in property prices drove a lot of the credit growth.
The authors also suggest that the preferential treatment of mortgage debt by the tax system is one of the contributory factors, and that this should be reformed. Given the discussions about negative gearing and taxing property that crop up around here, I can't see that going down well.