Fine violins by less exalted old Italians still fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, and prices keep rising.
As long as prices keep rising landlords can hope for profits in the form of capital gains, and those who run into cash-flow problems can usually sell their way out of trouble.
ECONOMIST: Rising house prices have hidden a multitude of sins
Even so, there's good reason to believe that prices will keep rising.
As a greater share of personal income derives from options, so more people manage to persuade themselves that equity prices will keep rising.
Still, a small rise in interest rates would still leave monetary policy very loose, while serving as a warning to investors and homeowners that shares and house prices cannot keep rising for ever.
The riskiness of that bet was underestimated because almost everyone from bankers through regulators to politicians missed one simple truth: that property prices cannot keep rising faster than the economy or the ability to service property-related debts.
ECONOMIST: The banks' contribution to the economy has been overstated
Several Democratic members of Congress have asked the President to consider releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep prices from rising too much.
With rates remaining at such levels, house prices are expected to keep rising, adding about 14% to the value of the average house.
PIMCO, a bond fund-management firm, reckons that this was a hint that the Fed chairman would try to keep house prices rising, come what may.
The Chinese government has been pushing for slower real estate construction and slower sales all year in its effort to keep property prices from rising further.
The idea that an Asian growth story, as per capita energy demand spikes, especially in China and India, has been used to support the argument that secular trends and market forces were in place to keep uranium prices rising.
FORBES: Uranium Miners Rally As Investors Bet On Long Term Upside
But as long as gold prices can stay strong and keep rising, it could keep these concerns at bay.
FORBES: Mining Share Weakness Could Have Many Reasons -- Midas Fund
Under paper money, the rich may get richer, but the middle class is left on a treadmill, barely able to keep up with rising prices.
FORBES: Gingrich, The Gold Standard, And The Florida Primary
Fortunately, rising prices tend to keep a lid on complaints.
Those with incomes above the bottom 10% and below the top 10% have benefited from the increases in the amount they can earn before they have to pay any income tax, even if they have suffered from their wages failing to keep up with rising prices, which is not reflected in these figures.
Rising oil and food prices keep eroding consumers' spending power.
Subsidy-hooked farmers want higher prices, not lower ones, to keep pace with rising farm costs and falling incomes.
Tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help offset rising oil prices is another way to keep prices stable, albeit short term.
Moreover, rising oil prices can do nothing to keep inflation dead and buried with what we thought was a stake through its heart.
For instance, it would be futile for China to keep crunching down its money supply if prices are rising not because of too much money chasing too few goods, but too many rigidities limiting the output of goods.
Rising commodity prices feed into rising real estate prices, as investors rush to buy real assets that are expected to keep up or even exceed the rate of inflation.
He also needs to keep prices low at a time when food costs are rising ever higher.
FORBES: Arcos Dorados IPO Creates First McDonald's Billionaire
So, supply failing to keep pace with rising demand will push up food prices.
Rising living standards in developing economies like China will keep prices of natural resources high as demand outpaces supply.
Exports have been banned to keep sugar prices low in India at a time when sugar prices were rising in the futures market.
FORBES: US Brazil Biofuels Talk Helps Cosan, But India Could Change That
Rising incomes and falling rates have helped to keep historic relative measures of house prices more or less unchanged.
Mr Greenspan has signalled that interest rates must keep rising until the economy slows, and that such a slowdown is unlikely to happen if share prices keep going up.
Rising prices, rebounding household formation, and the normalization of housing starts over the next four years should keep upward pressure on the housing market.
FORBES: Housing No Longer A Drag On GDP As Recovery Solidifies, Goldman Says
应用推荐