Originally Posted by cykoe6

This is false. Two years ago in Latvia anyone with a job on the books could quite easily get a loan with monthly payments up to 2/3 of their salary. Someone making 600 LVL per month ($1200) could buy a $40,000 car. Now there are so many cars loans under water in Latvia that the finance companies are not even repossessing them since there are no buyers at any price. All those loans are non performing and are held by European banks (mostly Swedish). That does not even hold a candle to the amount of real estate loans that are under water.