How did the British banks get landed with so many dodgy American mortgages?

They buy and sell mortgages like they buy and sell bonds, shares etc with savers money on the international markets. And some banks bought too many dodgy american ones.

And dukefent your an idiot, with about as much knowledge of the British housing market or just ecnomics in general as Norman Lamont.

Because directors in the U.K. give each other ridiculous employment contracts. The worse they behave the more money they can make. Getting sacked, is just another good earner to them.

In other countries they risk jail for what they get rewarded for in this country. It stinks.

They BOUGHT them for Investment purposes back when Our Economy was GOOD... NOW they're stuck with a portfolio full of "lemons"- that are going Sour! Poor blokes; they should've KNOWN not to buy into something that had Bush's "signature" too! :(

The ONLY way ANYONE gets 'landed' with a mortgage is if they loan the money or BUY the mortgage. they obviously thought they were worth whatever they paid for them.

Evidently people were actually buying houses in the US, as opposed to Brits who just live on the dole in government housing.

They were investments like anything else.

They bought them, silly.