We have government's hand in the economy because the capitilists demanded it to avoid the consequences of a truly free market: competition that would drive them out of business. Government stepped in to give favored capitalists privileged places in the economy from which they could operate without the threat of destructive competition. Izzatso recognizes the problems of having done so: the privileged, the elite, having been favored, take over not only the market but the government itself. Capitalism just does not work. Only an active citizenry works, but we don't have that either.

As in the ordinal ranking where the confidence fairy comes first, the invisible hand second, and the laissez fairy third.

Glad the Austrians got that all figured out.

That data linked is less than transparent, with no additional navigation from that file available. How do you get to the 9% figure? I calculate the annual increase from those numbers at almost exactly 3% per year. Isn't that slightly below the historic rate of inflation in housing prices?

The economist has some charts of global housing prices:

http://www.economist.com/blogs...use-prices

South Africa and Japan are the outliers.

because we're likely going to dip below the trend line. Maybe 15 percent is more likely, and much more if we enter a euro-induced depression.