Steve is one of the best product guys in high tech, perhaps THE best ever, but he's no engineer. Combine that with a propensity to hyperbole and the result is periodic outbursts of ill-judged, misconstrued and reputationally-damaging silliness...

For the last 100 years houses have primarily provided shelter and a hedge against inflation. It's only recently that they've become a widely used source of speculation and --- via home equity loans --- collateral for collosal household debt.