The Bank of England did not need the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to point out the risks of a property bubble in the UK. They were spelled out by Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank's deputy governor, who said in a speech last week that it would be unwise to rule out the possibility of a hard landing for the housing market. Threadneedle Street's response to this threat is following the graduated approach used by the US military to prepare for a nuclear conflict. The Pentagon has a series of defence readiness conditions (defcons), which start with the lowest state of alert (defcon 5) and end with war ... (full story)