As mortgages become a more popular means of financing homes, home equity falls. Also, once mortgages are common, high inflation increases the amount of equity you have in your house, relative to the residual value of your mortgage. And don't forget to tune in at 11 for our special investigative report: government subsidies cause increases in whatever it is they are subsidizing.
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Megan McArdle is a columnist at Bloomberg View and a former senior editor at The Atlantic. Her new book is The Up Side of Down.