Did the US Fed and Bank of England just sink into a housing crash moral hazard abyss?

Have the recent moves of the US Fed and Bank of England to bail out failed mortgage gambler banks at taxpayer expense left you with a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that nobody competent is minding the store?

Here's the word on the street from the UK, where moral hazard is raging and a great collapse is now assured.

The first thing to remember about the collapse and de facto nationalisation of Northern Rock is that it was essentially about house prices. Since ministers have done so much to inflate those prices, it is understandable that they should feel obliged to relieve Northern Rock's depositors of any risk.

I repeat, this all began with houses. For half a century home ownership in Britain - termed a "right" by Brown - has been indulged beyond economic reason. It has sucked savings out of the productive sector. It has tied up pension money that should be helping the economy in the stock market. Its tax reliefs have immobilised young people who, in most countries, remain in the more fluid rented sector until later in life. It has led to mass hysteria with every price rise or fall. Housing sees the British, their rulers and their newspapers, at their most innumerate and irrational.