[not2b]

People are extremely sensitive to rises in gasoline prices because they are so visible. But the crisis was triggered by a wave of people bidding prices on houses higher and higher, taking out loans they couldn't afford, hoping to flip or accepting balloon payments they thought they could escape by selling at a higher prices, because home prices are guaranteed to go up, right?

Some people bought houses a very long way from their jobs and may have been hurt by an increase in gasoline prices in some areas, but if so, this only affected the timing of the crash, perhaps moving it up a little. It was an unstable structure that was guaranteed to fall apart.