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T H E H U T G L U T
income for a hut. Now they were paying 10 or 20 times.
People bought huts that they knew they could not afford
in the belief that they could sell in a few years for far
more than they paid. With that kind of profi t potential,
no downside risk, and oodles of government incentives
including subsidized loans at artifi cially low interest rates,
nobody could resist.
But the rapid rise in hut prices was a boon to the senators.
The easy riches made voters feel wealthy and provided
circumstantial evidence of wise economic leadership.
Naturally the senators took every effort to keep the merry-
go-round spinning. Ben Barnacle, and even the elaborately
esteemed Ally Greenfi n, assured all that there could be no
such thing as a hut glut, because hut prices simply could
not fall.
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