Everything is a ponzi scheme, the only question is whether the speculative bubble is the majority of the value. The "use value" of a house is living in it. The

Everything is a ponzi scheme, the only question is whether the speculative bubble is the majority of the value. The "use value" of a house is living in it. The "market value" from the housing market speculation may be multiples of that. There are two sectors in the economy... the productive one, which creates wealth for society (startups, new technology, reusing what works, cross pollination, economies of scale) and then there is the zero-sum one (exchanges, trading). Sure, it may enable more efficient capital allocation and help society somewhat, but over time, with financial derivatives, most of it is just a giant casino. When you come into a casino, and walk away with more dollars than you came in with, someone necessarily walks away with less. The casino doesn't print dollars. Same here. The exchanges don't issue dollars (they aren't banks, after all ;-) ... so for someone to win X, someone has to lose X. Have fun losing to the institutions. The investing game is over in whatever assets already appreciated 50,000% .. move on to newer projects, and better yet, try to focus on that first sector of the economy, the one that actually helps society!