A fine diary to mention two related news items. The first which I do not have at my fingertip is a Bloomberg bulletin on the growth of "vulture fund" mortgage shops in the US. A private equity group of (former MBers, traders, IBers) raise cash to purchase distressed notes individually at deep discount, resets rate terms, collects payments until market value appreciation of the property >15%, iirc, determines the sale date of the note. The example in the story is a Sonoma, CA home, 2005 purchase price $1.5M. This market-based solution, guaranteed by new and unofficial FHA junk bond status, is GWB's dream.

Then there is this leading indicator, " 4 luxury model homes ablaze in Wash". The new title is "Ecoterror link eyed in Wash. fires".

WOODINVILLE, Wash. - Fires burned four multimillion-dollar show homes in a suburb north of Seattle Monday, and authorities found a spray-painted sign purportedly left by a radical environmental group at the scene.

The sign, a white sheet that had the initials of the Earth Liberation Front in scraggly red letters, mocked claims the luxury homes on the "Street of Dreams" were environmentally friendly, according to video images of the sign aired by KING-TV.

[scrubbed: "Built Green? Nope black!" the sign said.]

The sign, a sheet with red scraggly letters, said "McMansions in RCDs r not green," a reference to rural cluster developments.
[...]
The blazes are suspicious because they were set in multiple places in separate houses, said Chief Rick Eastman of Snohomish County District Seven. Eastman confirmed that the ELF sign was found at the scene of the fires in the community north of Woodinville, where some homes were still under construction.

This article has been "updated" for refresh with description of "green" building methods within the hour I first sited it. Oddly enough, the last alleged ELF-related crime in the state was a "string of arsons" from the mid-'90s to 2001.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.