Last week, I witnessed RTE’s business correspondent flail on the 9 O’Clock News as he attempted to explain to an impassive-looking Anne Doyle why fears over subprime mortgages had fueled some scary dips in the world’s stock markets. For those of you who remain in the dark about the connection between humble home mortgages and 300-point falls in the Dow, The New York Times has provided a helpful illustration of steps in the process whereby an improvident loan made to someone with a dodgy credit history is repackaged as a shiny “financial vehicle.” In particular, step 4 in the process, in which the riskiest loans are transformed into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that can offer “AAA”-grade bonds seems like a manoeuvre of such brazenness that it would shame a three-card monte dealer. Meanwhile, in Arizona, one of the areas worst hit by foreclosures, authorities in the Phoenix area are worried about mosquito infestations and the spread of West Nile virus, risks associated with stagnant swimming pools on abandoned properties. At least if the Irish property market follows its U.S. counterpart off the cliff, only rotting fields of decking rather than malarial swamps will be the chief relic of the boom.