Synthesis

The cause of the low housing market can be found in Andrew Laperriere's "House of Cards" article because it informs the reader about the bank loans and tendencies of the borrowers. He tells how people do not have to provide verification of income or have a down payment for these housing loans. Many people are taking the "lower rate" loans in hopes to purchase a newer house or get out of the finacial burden they were in by refinancing. In Grant McCracken's "The Evocative Power of Things" society is always trying to advance to bigger and better things. McCracken also says that the pull on these worldly goods is getting to be more powerful because we have more access to easy money as we can see in Laperriere's article. The subprime loans he mentions can sometimes be used to consolidate credit card bills. This is a pull of the world because the majority of items purchased with credit cards are possessions we do not need, impulsed buying. But these loans are available to almost anyone that has credit already established. Customers do not have to go through a background check or credit history in order to qualify for these loans. Americans may be getting these risky loans because of their displaced meaning with consumer goods, trying to fix one problem with another.