The boom had been built on sand: housing speculation, overvalued stocks, reckless deregulation, irresponsible deficits.

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To Obama, the old order of securities created by contracts freely entered into is like the "house built on sand" in Jesus' parable.

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He earned loud cheers from delegates for attacking what he called Britain's "fast buck" culture - saying the country had to learn the lesson that "growth is built on sand if it comes from our predators and not our producers".

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Houses built on shifting sand, very badly.

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And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

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Delivering the homily of his first Mass as leader of the worlds 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis ended his remarks with a call to reconstruction of the church, which he said is in danger of being like a house of sand built by children on a beach.

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Bar: fully or partially submerged mound of sand, gravel or other unconsolidated material built on the sea-bottom in shallow water by waves and currents.

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It had been built illegally on what used to be a canal, before a developer had filled it in with sand.

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