My economics textbook (written in 2007) on the housing market:

[malkusm]

Chapter 1, Paragraph #2 and 3 (as an introduction to the entire book):

Consider buying beer and wine to go with your meal at a restaurant. You will probably have to pay at least $5.95 for wine or beer that would cost no more than $1.00 in a liquor store. How can that be? Why don't people balk at such extreme prices and why don't restaurants offer a better deal?

Next, look at housing prices. In recent times, these prices have been rising by 20 percent or even 50 percent a year in some cities. How can that be, when construction costs have been relatively stable? It should be possible to build a house relatively cheaply, so shouldn't that put a lid on the prices of existing houses? Won't this house price "bubble" eventually collapse, just like the stock market did in 2000-2001?

So, this textbook equates the demand of alcohol served in a restaurant with the demand of housing in 2007 (holding that this was real demand and not artificial), and asked "won't this housing bubble collapse?" in the same rhetorical style as the other obviously phony questions.

Also note how "bubble" was in quotations, as if to say "P.S. It's not actually a bubble."

This book is sure to be full of win!

[jclay2]

LOL, that is pretty good. I bet the next edition changes that section entirely.

[powerofreason]

Gee I don't know Mr. Establlshment Economist! I mean, JUST MAYBE the thousands of pages of fine print of arbitrary restrictions on the marketplace, countless fees, taxes, and other egregious WRONGS like communist style central banking/interest rate manipulation, and stealing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars from innocent people to finance a worldwide empire; maybe these things could have played a role in screwing up the housing market???

Wait until my economics book comes out lol.

[Acala]

Wait until my economics book comes out lol.

Mine would be full of "WTF?" and illustrations of men in tailored suits being hauled off in irons while crowds waived pitchforks in the background.

[brandon]

The obvious reason why alcohol is so expensive at bars and restaurants is that extremely difficult to get and expensive liquor licenses create a barrier to entry and stifle competition.

Similarly, a house would be much cheaper to build if you didn't need to worry about zoning, building codes, and the corporate and personal income taxes the builders have to pay.

[powerofreason]

Mine would be full of "WTF?" and illustrations of men in tailored suits being hauled off in irons while crowds waived pitchforks in the background.

Haha yea. I fantasize that my book would be published in a post government America, and adorned with pictures of government officials being hanged and other heartwarming images.

One of the captions might read, "This is a pre-freedom era tool of the ruling mafia being made to pay for his countless misdeeds against the people. His job was to help convince the people that his organization was not in fact evil."

[malkusm]

The obvious reason why alcohol is so expensive at bars and restaurants is that extremely difficult to get and expensive liquor licenses create a barrier to entry and stifle competition.

Similarly, a house would be much cheaper to build if you didn't need to worry about zoning, building codes, and the corporate and personal income taxes the builders have to pay.

Well, even without the licensing on liquor, people would still pay a lot more at a meal for a drink than they would at a store to consume at home. Atmosphere and service are a large part of the discrepancy....but yeah, in almost every industry and service, there are government regulations that inflate prices for consumers.

[TCE]

That brings me back. I just had a lecture a week ago on why a National Bank is necessary to any nation. I laughed hysterically.

[powerofreason]

That brings me back. I just had a lecture a week ago on why a National Bank is necessary to any nation. I laughed hysterically.

Oh god. That blurs the line between scary and funny.

[TCE]

Oh god. That blurs the line between scary and funny.

It stopped being funny after he stated that a country cannot be legitimate unless it has one.

Then it became funny again after he told us what great things the Federal Reserve has done for America.