[jbarham]

US subprime mortgage defaults were just the trigger for the 2008 global financial crisis. Most subsequent mortgage defaults in the US (and Ireland, Portugal, Spain etc.) were for prime mortgages.

My guess is that the Saudi oil price war, Chinese credit defaults and turmoil in the Eurozone will trigger an even bigger global financial in 2015.

FWIW I currently live in Melbourne, Australia, but lived in southern California when the US housing bubble burst. I see lots of parallels in Australia, but if anything the housing bubble in Australia is even bigger due to idiotic policies like negative gearing and interest only investor mortgages.