Christopher Mayer

The inability of governments to maintain fixed exchange rates in the face of opposing market forces is only further proof of their impotency.

To most, the strong housing market has "saved" the economy by providing consumers with fresh purchasing power and housing gains have helped cushion many from the withering blows of the stock market’s decline.

But the housing boom is not an unmitigated good.

Next to government debt in terms of liquidity is the swollen market for residential mortgages. As author Charles Morris observed in his book, Money, Greed, and Risk, "Measured by volume, the second most important American financial instrument over the past half century, by a wide margin, has been the lowly residential mortgage.