I wish low interest rates were the only thing incentivizing people to invest in real estate. It's tax treatment, it's bailouts, it's government buying underwater real estate and selling it at a loss to the same bank they bought it. It's Fanny and Freddy, ready to take those high risk mortgages off your hands>

And as real estates absorbs all the investment capital, a lot of buildings are built that sit partially or even fully empty, just appreciating. But not really producing anything.

Sometimes, even the shelter a house was designed to provide is not used. People literally buy larger houses for the tax advantages, not because having the space is worth the investment.

Meanwhile, other investments actually produce good and services people are willing to buy and often turn a profit. These kinds of investments are the real source of wealth. A house is something that can only be built using existing wealth, whether yours or borrowed.

All of this is done because someone convinced policy makers that consumption is somehow what causes prosperity. This is incorrect.

It's actually PRODUCTION that creates prosperity. To consume something, someone has to produce it first. Everybody may want a car but until Henry Ford figures out how to produce it cheaply enough, they won't get one.

And that's over investment in real estate is a problem: it takes capital away from innovation. It DELAYS innovations. And those delays cost trillions, depending on what time period you're looking at. Certainly delaying the invention of the assembly line by a century would have cost trillions.