Boom-bust: house prices, banking and the depression of 2010

Using the United Kingdom as a case study, this well-researched account shows how, for more than 200 years, a remarkably regular 18-year cycle of boom and bust can be traced to the peaks and troughs in land prices. This exploration reveals how governments, during the upswing of the cycle, are complicit in encouraging a belief that property prices will continue upwards indefinitely because of their skilled management of the economy and attributes the current crises to public policy on both sides of the Atlantic. An alternative plan to neutralize the next boom, one that would lead to a more stable and environmentally friendly economy with a more equitable distribution of wealth, is also presented.;Cover; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; Preface to the Second Edition; Prologue; PART I AS SAFE AS HOUSES?; 1 Britain's Housing and the Business Cycle; 2 Banking on Failure; 3 The American State of Virtual Reality; 4 The Incredible Alan Greenspan; PART II GENESIS OF THE BOOM-BUST CYCLE; 5 Rent and the 18-Year Cycle; 6 The Patterns of History; 7 The Alchemy of Land Speculation; 8 The End of Boom Bust?; PART III ANATOMY OF THE FIRST GLOBAL CYCLE; 9 The New Economy: Selling an Anglo-American Myth; 10 Launched in the USA; 11 Gordon Brown's Magic Mantra; PART IV THE AUTOMATIC STABILISER.