Werner Hoermann

Housing Crisis Likely to Wipe Out Two Decades of Family-Earned Wealth

The housing bubble masked the impoverishment of the American middle class and one of the greatest wealth transfers in the history of America. By changing the way the CPI was measured, inflation was hidden and people got by by borrowing ever greater amounts on the increasing equity in their homes, without asking for higher wages. Now they may have still the same Dollar amount of equity in their real estate, but in reality they own less a percentage of their home than before. The difference has gone to the banks, who happily exchanged some paper currency for a greater share of a real asset.