The problem with Bernanke and one of the problems with this...

The problem with Bernanke and one of the problems with this whole so-called sub-prime mess is that the US mortgage market does not operate like Australia.

In Australia most people have rather ordinary adjustable rate loans which more or less closely follow official rates up and down.

In the USA most people have historically had 30-year fixed rates - something which has not been available in Australia.

Now in the USA they have all sorts of riduculous resettable variable loan schemes which don't work in a very sensible way at all. They have come up with these retarded loan contracts and it serves them all right.