"Gordon Brown adviser Stephen Nickell fears mortgage rationing"

This Nickell character is a former Bank of England policy maker and professor at Oxford. And, it would appear, either a complete moron or a purveyor of propaganda and lies on behalf of HM Gummint. Or probably both.

A few months ago, he presented written evidence to the House of Lords saying that "...the house price to income ratio would rise from 7.07 to 9.3 by 2026 as indicated in my evidence".

So, bearing in mind that prices had already started falling in the second half of 2007, he can shove his clever formulae up his a*se, either he's a moron who stuck a ruler on the chart...
and somehow arrived at a ratio of over 9 or just as likely, he was being paid to fabricate evidence to support HM Gummint's plan to "build two million homes". The way things stand, home builders have downed tools; I'd love to see assorted cabinet ministers don hard hats and boots and get cracking!

In today's twattish outburst, The Great Economist is whining on about 'mortgage rationing', er, even in a free market, there is rationing - it's called price rationing, the best form of rationing wot is. Again, either he is a moron who doesn't understand this or just as likely, he is being paid to fabricate evidence to support HM Gummint's plan for taxpayer subsidies to banks to try and desperately shore up house prices at their current ridiculous level, because The Goblin King knows too well that Andrew Marr's accusation, that he had ridden on the back of house price inflation and the credit bubble for the last eleven years was absolutely spot on.

h/t Jack C at HPC.