It seems to me that so much of the world's markets operate on the basis of perceptions and not on any objective reality. That's hardly surprising because a lot of individuals operate on that basis too, i.e. if they actually sat down and compared what they own with what they owe they'd get scared and drop the balls, instead of which they keep on juggling and everything goes on more or less ok. It seems to me that what the government has done has enabled the banks, and by extension, all of us to keep on juggling. In the present circumstances I think that is as much as we can hope for in the short-term. I think it should be viewed as an opportunity, firstly to bring the banks into line by imposing whatever controls are deemed necessary to cut out their riskier lending practices. If there are large numbers of houses/apartments out there without buyers there are also large numbers of people who cannot afford housing, long local authority waiting lists for housing and huge amounts of money being wasted on bed and breakfast accommodation for some on those housing lists. For instance why doesn't our HSE and Universities buy unsold apartments in suitable locations to use as nursing and student accommodation? It seems to me that what we need in this situation is a little vision and imagination.