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The Housing-Bubble and the American Revolution

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/weekinreview/30arango.html?ref=weekinreview



November 30, 2008
Word for Word
The Housing-Bubble and the American Revolution
By TIM ARANGO
When Benjamin Franklin returned to America in 1762, after almost five years
in London, he was shocked at the housing prices.

"The expence of living is greatly advanc'd in my absence," he commented.
"Rent of old houses, and value of lands ... are trebled in the past six
years."

Franklin, it seems, had come home to a real estate bubble. It eventually
popped - bringing on a credit crunch and deep recession that was the
macroeconomic backdrop to the American Revolution.

Sound familiar?

The parallels between the current economy and the one Franklin saw highlight
a debate among historians: how big a role did economics, as opposed to
ideas, play in fomenting revolution?

"I think there's reason to doubt the Revolution would have happened as it
did if it weren't for these economic conditions," said Ronald W. Michener,
an economics professor at the University of Virginia, in a radical departure
from today's popular notion that the Revolution was a product primarily of
grand ideas about self-government. ...........................