The article “Safe as Houses” in Ferguson’s “The Ascent of Money” traces the rise of interest in property ownership among English-speaking countries during the early 20th century. Financial stability is the main theme discussed in the article as it highlights how property appeals to everyone, including the illiterate who understand the significance of owning property. Monopoly gained widespread prominence due to this interest in property ownership, and the economic recession witnessed experienced in the early 1930s when properties became too expensive for most citizens.
The game became so popular that countries such as Britain used it in espionage to smuggle British captives from German prisons. The article proceeds to highlight the reason many financial institutions readily lend individuals interested in buying properties. However, the article poses an important question about the safety of owning property in the real estate business.
The article discusses the influence of aristocracy on the United Kingdom’s politics since the nineteenth century and the changes that occurred through industrialization and increased agricultural production. Previously, the wealthy landowner’s reserved suffrage rights but this changed in the late 1880s through the Electoral reform acts that allowed anyone capable of paying rent to vote. The article also analyzes America’s historical reliance on residential investment for economic growth and the vulnerability of such economic models during global recessions.
The article points out the New Deal that sought to increase access to public housing as one of the proposed solutions to ending Americans’ suffering during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s government also refinanced and extended mortgages terms to ease the pressure on the housing sector. The article notes that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) reinvented the American mortgage market by backing mortgage lenders through federal insurance.
However, the article also presents the darker side of the federal government’s involvement in the mortgage industry, citing the discriminatory practices that existed between the 1940s and 1960s. The government and mortgage lenders considered the African-Americans uncreditworthy and used credit rating to segregate the blacks. Additionally, African-Americans paid more interest rates than Caucasian Americans. The British government emulated America’s model of offering affordable housing to low-income earners despite the challenges in ensuring the equitability of the housings to the Black and White Americans. Both governments experienced major booms and busts due to their attempts at stabilizing prices in the property market.
The article points out the massive losses experienced by the savings and loan associations during the 1980s as the Federal Reserve slowed monetary growth. The government’s decision to deregulate and offer tax breaks worsened the situation as the savings and loan associations misused money on dubious deals. For instance, the article highlights the Empire Savings and Loan Association that swindled money from investors in the Dallas area during the early 1980s.
The fraudulent activities in most of the savings and loan associations increased the mismatch between liabilities and assets. Eventually, the fraud in the savings and loan associations resulted in $153 billion in losses within eleven years. Such losses indicate that a clique of a few fraudulent individuals may destabilize the entire property investment market through theft and dubious deals. The article suggests that investing in the stock market offers safer and greater returns than the property market does. Finally, the article points out the challenges of acquiring and owning property in regions where the inhabitants lack title deeds and the administrations are bureaucratic and corrupt.
The article also points out that attempts by microfinance institutions to alleviate the sufferings of individuals living in slums are not wholly effective. One of the reasons suggested for the failure is that some of the microfinance institutions seek to make profits from assisting the poor and landless people.