In fact, the housing market is a fairly small part of the financial system. In 2007, the total volume of home sales in the United States was about $1.7 trillion—paltry when compared with the $40 trillion in stocks that are traded every year. But in contrast to the activity that was taking place on Main Street, Wall Street was making bets on housing at furious rates. In 2007, the total volume of trades in mortgage-backed securities was about $80 trillion.71 That meant that for every dollar that someone was willing to put in a mortgage, Wall Street was making almost $50 worth of bets on the
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