"I don't use the B-word. I refuse to use the B-word," the chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Wayne Byres, told a Sydney conference earlier this week. "It implies a binary. That's too simplistic."

Good news that the man charged with making sure Australia's banks don't do anything stupid with our savings is so prudent in his choice of words (and also that he refuses to see the world in black and white, or any other binary).

ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft and APRA's Wayne Byres are worried about the property market. But have their actions come too late? Credit:Peter Braig

One misspeak from chairman Byres – the B-word whispered behind the doors of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's annual forum – could send property investors stampeding for those doors, leaving nothing in their wake but the soft, wet pop of the B-word's explosive decompression, and a nation of surprised homeowners with soapy splash marks on their faces.

It's funny to think that such an innocent word – reminiscent of childhood frolics that turn to post-pop tears – should have so much power over such powerful-seeming men. Maybe they harbour their own traumatic memories of childhood bubbles bursting.