Infinite Competition, enabled by efficient communications, computers, and transportation, has brought many developing nations into the global marketplace that were not in it before. Many of these nations have become, on a relative basis compared to earlier, fabulously wealthy. Now all this ‘infinite money’ doesn’t just want to sit around, it wants to make more money, or rather the people whose money it is do!
Vast sums of ‘infinite money’ went seeking easy returns in the marketplace. Much of it went to back global mortgage investments which were seen as relatively low risk with high return. But, there was so much demand for this easy money that investment firms were running out of mortgages to ‘sell’ as investments. So they lowered the qualification bar for getting mortgages, to a ridiculous point where people could in essence borrow whatever they want with no qualifications. And with all this easy money for borrowers, demand for homes skyrocketed, along with, no surprise, home prices. And around and around it went.
This global pyramid scheme, like all others, was inevitably destined to collapse.
An excellent NPR (National Public Radio) audio stream about this can be found by clicking here and then click Full Episode on the left.