I didn't name anybody as responsible for Americans being "held hostage" economically to mortgages. The idea of Federally-backed mortgages goes back to the New Deal and FDR, if you feel such a burning desire to point fingers. Politicians have been selling the "American dream of home ownership" ever since.

Now that we 've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about substance. Do you agree that, in general, America is disadvantaged in a global economy by high overhead? And specifically, as far as the wage competitiveness of American workers, are mortgages a significant cost component?

Are American jobs being outsourced because of real estate speculation?

If the cost of housing is a significant handicap for Americans, then it's an unnatural handicap, one we inflicted on ourselves when we stopped thinking of housing as a necessity and started thinking of it as an investment vehicle. The "value" of real estate is only tenuously tied to utilitarian value.

Three decades ago, in the middle of a period of high inflation, people thought that real estate was an inflation-proof investment. Then inevitably people stopped thinking of real estate inflation as a bad thing and started thinking of it as a "blessing" and something to pray for. Our grandparents would have been appalled.

What do you call an economic proposition based on never-ending inflation? A Ponzi scheme.

Nobody to blame, Tom, we inflicted it on ourselves with the best of intentions. People couldn't help but be attracted to the magical properties of something you could buy and would generate wealth just sitting there. Forget that grubby "means of production" horse-hockey, just invest in dirt and watch it sprout gold!