Where were you when……

For older generations, the assassination of US president John F Kennedy was a seminal moment, one that prompted the question: “Where were you when JFK was shot?” For our generation, the questions we are likely to face in the future might well be: “Where were we when we realized that the UK property market (and those of numerous other countries) was a bubble or that it was going to go tits-up for many hedge funds?”

For me, the first epiphany came in October 2005 when I was out cycling with some friends. One of them told me he had nine buy-to-let mortgages with the Woolwich Building Society – now absorbed but unlamented into Barclays – even though he did not have a job. This was the same building society-turned-bank that would not extend me a mortgage, even though it was for less than 20% of the value of my house and even though I had a job.

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