Here’s the deal with the mountain of wanna-be specuvestors who bid up housing in the bubble as viewed from a casino floor roulet wheel:
The bubble-nuts placed bets by bidding up houses. When houses kept going up they doubled down and bid them ever higher. Over and over they let it ride……a $130k house became a $240k house, which then was bid up to $350k (Weeee, waiter another mojito please, pit boss add it to my marker) and then the more fearless gambler, bubble-nut bet it up to $500k!
When the roulet wheel stopped spinning and they came up lossers they simply said sorry, I did not understand the game and I’m not paying. They walked away from their marker at the casino and left everyone else wondering what to do with super-inflated bets when no one wants to play or pay anymore.
So now we tax payers are stuck with their marker, we get to pay for there drunken casino orgy. We responsible people who could clearly see this was reckless gambling get the entire bill for their steely nerve at the roulet wheel.
Wall Street was different. They lead everyone to believe their 401k was actually in a legitimate casino and that we had a chance of winning. However, the thieving Wall Street insiders do not leave things to chance so they grabbed all the money off the table while the wheel was still spinning and ran! Wash and repeat every 15-20 years.