We’ve recently been reminded of a passage from Po Bronson’s The Nudist on the Late Shift:

Though people are willing to make bets, nobody pretends that stock prices are rational. By now it’s perfectly clear that the national fascination is riveted on people who are getting rich quickly and easily – and that it’s hard for the country to see beyond the dollar signs. The Internet is the plot device for the 90’s; it’s the thing people are using to get rich…

Okay, now substitute “real estate” for “stock” and “Internet”, and “00’s” for “90’s”. As we are fond of saying, we’ve been to this movie and we know how it ends.