Another interesting fact is that the papers headline describes it as a 'housing crash' - for the last 18 months the Australian papers have been talking about 'soft landings' and 'slow growth', so sentiment appears to be changing..
Here's how I think a soft landing can be achieved for a period in the Irish property market.
The ECB needs to raise rates until house prices in Ireland just start to tip from stagnating to falling. At that point they need to reduce interest rates to reassure investors and buyers.
Now they will have to be very vigilant as we have such regional distortions between Dublin and the rest that the adjustments required for a soft landing in Dublin may crash a region further out.
However if Mr Trichet brings all the economic expertise in the ECB to focus on the issue and is careful in tuning rates it should be achievable.
He will simply have to ignore Eurozone inflation and the resurgent economies of Germany and France.
Thank you in advance Mr. Trichet !