Mr. David Duffy:

I think a herd instinct is a lot to do with this. When I was looking at this, before I got to AIB, this was happening in many jurisdictions in many countries, and the faith in asset prices rising and the encouragement by almost every professional in the industry to chase after the best market share in that area, those were the prevailing cultures at the time and those were the prevailing thoughts at the time.

It should probably have occurred to people that, like anything else, it can't ... asset prices, any prices, can't move in one direction forever.