Charts courtesy of John Williams at Shadowstats.
The first chart shows US Housing Starts since the year 2000.
The second chart shows US Housing Starts since 1945.
"The wealth of another region excites their greed; and if it is weak, their lust for power as well. Nothing from the rising to the setting of the sun is enough for them. Among all others only they are compelled to attack the poor as well as the rich. Plunder, rape, and murder they falsely call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
Tacitus, Agricola