American Entrepreneur

EPILOGUE

The Recession Returns

By 2008, the American economy began to slow again. There was an obvious cause: The boom of the 1990s Internet businesses had been replaced by a real estate boom. Easy credit, especially for homeowners, fueled this boom and, like other booms, it fed on itself. Steadily rising prices became an end in themselves, as people began to purchase property more as investments than as a primary residence. Prices became unsustainably high. As the one-income homeowner became nearly obsolete, investors gobbled up homes that they rented out at a loss, hoping to recoup their losses with appreciation of the property. Television ...